A Practical Guide to Conducting a Sheriff Court Proof

This book is a practical guide to conducting a proof in the sheriff court, based on the author's thirty years of experience of presenting evidence at proofs and hearings in the sheriff court, the Court of Session and before tribunals. The guide highlights the importance of risk management in an area of law that is fraught with hazards concerning costs, timescales and adverse outcomes. It also identifies many useful steps that ought to be taken with a view to minimising such hazards and making the process of conducting a proof as smooth and as painless as possible. Although the book is aimed primarily at practitioners it describes the practical application of the law of evidence, an area which will interest academics and students. The guide deals with managing clients, advice on preparation and how best to cover your back in this perilous area of practice. Although reference is made to court rules and textbooks the book is first and foremost a practice guide.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andrew Stevenson S.S.C. is a practising solicitor advocate at Waddell and Mackintosh, Troon. He has undertaken many hundreds of proofs across Scotland since 1992 in virtually all areas of litigation and has long experience of acting as a commissioner to recover evidence in sheriff court actions both civil and criminal. Andrew is a former President of the Glasgow Bar Association and he is currently Secretary of the Scottish Law Agents' Society. He is also a committee member of the Society of Solicitor Advocates. Andrew has written extensively on civil procedure and gives seminars on proofs and litigation. He is a contributor to Greens Litigation Styles. He is a regular columnist for The Scotsman and is a vice convenor of the Discipline Tribunal of the Church of Scotland. He is the author of Style Writs for the Sheriff Court, Bloomsbury 2023.

CONTENTS

1. Introduction

2. Risk Management

3. The Capacities in Which You Are Acting

4. Officer of the Court

5. Acting as Direct Agent for a Litigant

6. Acting as an Agent for Another Solicitor

7. Acting as an Employee

8. Recipient of Third Party Funding

9. Risk Management: How to Avoid Having to Conduct a Proof

10. Points to Attend to When the Proof Is Being Assigned

11. Modes of Proof

12. Managing the Evidence That You Need to Succeed at a Proof

13. Intimating and Lodging Lists of Documents, Witnesses, Affidavits and Productions

14. Practical Steps to Make Life as Easy as Possible on the Day

15. Using Evidence at the Proof; Witnesses

16. Adducing Objective and Not Subjective Evidence

17. Calling Witnesses

18. Credibility Versus Reliability

19. Objecting to the Opponent's Questions

20. Cross Examination

21. Judicial Knowledge

22. Ordinary Cause Rules on Running a Proof

23. The Law of Evidence

24. Running a Hopeless Proof

25. If the Proof Is Lost

26. Conclusion

Bibliography