The Civil Justice System’s Pandemic Response: What Worked, What Did Not, and Recommendations for the Future

This research, which is being conducted through a partnership between researchers at the School of Law and Ipsos Scotland, will inform the future vision for the civil courts, tribunals and civil justice more broadly. Data collection will focus on a specific group of court and tribunals and case types, namely the Mental Health Tribunal Scotland (MHTS), the Health and Education Chamber of the Second Tier Tribunal (HEC) and family cases and commercial actions heard by the Sheriff Courts and the Court of Session.

The main aim is to improve and expand the existing evidence base on ‘remote hearings’ and other pandemic measures adopted by the Scottish courts and tribunals, so that any decision on whether they should continue to be used, adapted or discarded is informed by relevant, current and high quality research.

The research is structured around the following key questions:

1. In what way have the courts/tribunals under study adapted their processes and procedures as a result of the pandemic?
2. What has been the impact of the ‘pandemic measures’ adopted by the courts/tribunals, specifically remote hearings, on service users, staff and the judiciary?
3. Do changes need to be made to the ‘pandemic measures’, specifically remote hearings, to ensure ‘access to justice’ for service users? If so, what changes would be suggested?

The findings will be used to determine whether the experience of remote hearings and associated measures introduced during the pandemic are experienced differently by different groups of users, including parties, court and tribunal staff and the judiciary.