How many Civil Jury Trials take place in Scotland every year?

About 200 jury trial diets are assigned annually and of these about 50 or so of these actions proceed as far as the diet (date of the hearing). In common with all other types of civil hearing the actual number of actions which commence and proceed to a verdict or settlement after the first day are as follows: 1997: 4, 1998: 3; 1999 :8; 2000 : 2; 2001: 5, 2002: 5; 2003 : 4; 2004: 4; 2005 : 3; 2006 (to July) :5. The number of trials assigned and proceeding is though to be on he increase.
 

What types of action can be heard by a jury in Scotland?

In descending order of diets allocated the types of action are personal injury, family death claims, libel and defamation, false imprisonment/malicious prosecution/ police assault and (practically unknown in modern times) reduction of deeds on certain specified grounds.
 

Who can sit on a civil jury?

Any person who is registered as a parliamentary or local government elector in City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, West Lothian or Midlothian, aged between 18 and 65 and ordinarily resident in the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man for a period of at least 5 years from age 13 and not otherwise disqualified or ineligible to serve. Those ineligible to serve include the mentally disordered, judges and lawyers; those disqualified include persons who have been sentenced to life or 5 years or more in prison and certain other persons who have not been rehabilited under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.
 

What happens if I have been cited to serve on a civil jury?

Don’t panic but see the Scottish Courts website for some practical advice.
 

Why would anyone want their case heard by a jury?

In certain cases juries are thought to be more likely to be sympathetic to a pursuer or a defender – e.g. by a pursuer where he is blameless but badly injured or by a defender where it is thought that the pursuer is “at it” or exaggerating his claim – or where it is felt that a jury would be more generous than a judge might be ; for a fuller explanation see Civil Jury Trials, Chapter 7.
 

Why does Scotland retain civil juries for personal injury and death actions?

Because it has been felt judicially that the jury is the proper medium to judge and quantify such actions, because practitioners share this view and because civil jury results are as good as or better than judge-only results and because it is often felt that t is a positive advantage to have the ordinary lay people of Scotland involved in the administration of justice.
 

Should civil juries be abolished?

For the arguments for and against see Civil Jury Trials, Chapter 1.
 

What other jurisdictions retain civil juries?

Most notably, the United States of America but also England & Wales, the Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malawi, Tonga, Guam, the Northern Marina Islands, Anguilla, Montserrat, St Vincent and the Grenadines, the Virgin Islands, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands, St Christopher and Nevis, Jamaica, Puerto Rica and Belize; man of these jurisdictions also have juries in their Coroners Courts. For further details see Civil Jury Trials, Chapter 1 and Vidmar World Jury Systems , Oxford University Press, 2000.