Edinburgh Sheriff Court: Coronavirus Emergency Contingency Arrangements

CORONAVIRUS

EMERGENCY CONTINGENCY ARRANGEMENTS

EDINBURGH SHERIFF COURT

GUIDANCE IN RESPECT OF CIVIL AND CRIMINAL BUSINESS

Guidance has been issued over the past few days with regard to both Criminal and Civil business.

That guidance requires to be updated following the stringent restrictions put in place by the United Kingdom and Scottish Governments on Monday of this week.

With immediate effect the following arrangements for the programming of courts will apply.

1. A court will be programmed to deal with criminal business including custodies each day of the week.
2. There will be no civil courts programmed until further notice. However, a sheriff will be available to determine any truly urgent civil business. It is anticipated that any civil applications will be considered by a sheriff in chambers who will firstly determine whether the business is truly urgent and will then decide how to deal with any application or motion. It is likely that urgent business will be determined on the written submissions or by tele-conference.

Sheriff Principal M M Stephen QC
26 March 2020