Parliament Workbench

Petition · PE01427 · Session 4

Access to justice for non-corporate multi-party groups

Closed Submitted 17 May 2012 Justice
Signatures
1
Comments
0
Considered
7 meetings
in the Official Report

What it asks

Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to implement the Scottish Civil Courts Review recommendations on multi-party actions by making changes to existing protocols that will (1) encourage the Rules Council to use rule of court 2.2 for multi-party actions; (2) modify court fees to a single payment; (3) encourage the Rules Council to introduce a protocol on recovery of documents; (4) clarify the common law right of nuisance, and (5) introduce compulsory insurance.

What the petitioner did first

The subject petition is associated with previous Petition PE1234 which called for the instigation of a class (multi-party) action procedure or similar in Scots Law. PE1234 was first presented in committee on 3rd March 2009 but was subsequently closed on 17th November 2009 following favourable recommendations published in the Civil Courts Review Report (Lord Gill) during the intervening period. LLRA agreed closure following advice from Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP, the main parliamentary supporter of the petition.
The subject of Court Fees was raised with Mr. MacAskill on 16th June 2010 with the result that he would discuss the matter with the Lord President at their next scheduled meeting. LLRA have not yet received a response.
Various meetings have also been held with Malcolm Chisholm MSP on all of the issues in this petition and a meeting will be held with the Shadow Minister for Environment and Climate Change on Wednesday 28th March 2012.
Our proposed petition was also the subject of an article by Ian Swanson in The Edinburgh Evening News (March 19th 2012).
LLRA has noted recent debates on the Aarhus Convention and, in particular, the raising of petition PE1372 by Friends of the Earth. Much of the thrust of this petition is similar to that of PE1372, particularly in the areas of affordability and access to potential evidence where this petition provides specific focus. This petition does not in itself request the Government to demonstrate compliance with the Aarhus Convention but notes that, on some criteria, the Government may be in breach thereof.

Where it was considered

Official Report
  1. 1 May 2012
    1 mention
  2. 4 Sep 2012
    Public Petitions Committee
    Current Petitions
    1 mention
  3. 25 Sep 2012
    Justice Committee
    Petitions
    1 mention
  4. 18 Feb 2014
    Justice Committee
    Petitions
    2 mentions
  5. 4 Nov 2014
    Justice Committee
    Petitions
    1 mention
  6. 3 Feb 2015
    Justice Committee
    Petitions
    1 mention
  7. 21 Apr 2015
    Justice Committee
    Petitions
    1 mention

Signatures by country

No online signatures are recorded for this petition; the total above may include paper signatures.

Comments

No public comments.