Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018 (Commencement No. 4 and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2021 and come into force on 30 June 2021.

Appointed day

2.  30 June 2021 is the day appointed for the coming into force of the following provisions of the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018—

(a) section 8 (restriction on pursuer’s liability for expenses in personal injury claims),

(b) section 12(2) (minor and consequential modifications of the Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014), and

(c) section 13 (meaning of “legal representative”).

Transitional provision

3.—(1) The provisions listed in regulation 2 apply to claims commenced on or after 30 June 2021, and to proceedings arising from those claims.

(2) Where a claim has commenced prior to 30 June 2021, the provisions listed in regulation 2—

(a) apply to proceedings commenced on or after that date,

(b) do not apply to action taken by the person bringing the claim or their legal representative in connection with the claim before that date.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

Regulation 2 of these Regulations brings into force certain provisions of the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018 (“the 2018 Act”) on 30 June 2021.

Section 8 of the 2018 Act introduces a restriction on the liability for expenses of pursuers in personal injury claims. Section 12(2) aligns the reasonableness test in the Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 for expenses in simple procedure cases with section 8(4)(b) of the 2018 Act. Section 13 defines “legal representative” for the purposes of Part 2 of the 2018 Act.

Regulation 3 is a transitional provision which applies sections 8, 12(2) and 13 to claims or proceedings entered into on or after 30 June 2021. Where proceedings are entered into on or after that date, section 8 of the Act does not apply to any work conducted on the claim in advance of proceedings being commenced.

The Bill for the 2018 Act received Royal Assent on 5 June 2018. Sections 24 to 28 came into force on the following day and section 23 came into force on 5 August 2018.

NOTE AS TO EARLIER COMMENCEMENT REGULATIONS

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

The following provisions of the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018 have been brought into force by commencement regulations made before the date of these Regulations.