Jonathan Mitchell QC

In the last year, following Lord Penrose’s Review of the Inner House in 2006¹, the Inner House has become increasingly intolerant of time-wasting appeals. As was said in one case (Billig, below), “The court has, particularly in recent times, frequently had cause to upbraid parties and their advisers for failure properly to take into account the waste of public resources caused by late settlements and related matters. In the nature of things, [such] strictures of the court … rarely find their way into written judgments”. Since early 2007, however, the Inner House has issued a number of opinions which name and shame those responsible; Continue Reading »

1. This report is not published, but is referred to at numerous points in the Civil Courts Review Consultation Paper. Among its finding were that almost half of all summar roll hearings were discharged. [back]