What replaced the small claims court

Simple procedure replaced small claims for new relevant claims from 28th November 2016. Proceedings raised before that date were expressly preserved and carried on under the old rules, so the small claim has not vanished from the statute book — you simply cannot raise a new one. Simple procedure was created by section 72 of the Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 and governed by the Act of Sederunt (Simple Procedure) 2016. For anything you are thinking of raising now, simple procedure is the only route.

Section 72(3) sets the limit. Simple procedure covers proceedings for payment of a sum of money not exceeding five thousand pounds, exclusive of interest and expenses. Scottish Ministers may substitute a different sum by order under section 72(12) and have not done so, so five thousand pounds is the current ceiling.

Summary cause was not abolished, and this catches people out

A great deal of writing on this subject says that simple procedure swept away both small claims and summary cause. That is wrong, and it matters if your claim is not purely about money.

Section 35(1) of the Sheriff Courts (Scotland) Act 1971 remains in force. The 2016 commencement instrument brought only specified provisions into effect, including the old small claim provisions, and section 35(1) was not among them. Summary cause is still used, and the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service confirms its continuing use for actions for recovery of possession of heritable property, damages for personal injuries, and specified actions for delivery.

Delivery needs care, because the line does not fall where people expect. Where delivery or recovery of moveable property is sought together with an alternative money claim of five thousand pounds or less, simple procedure applies. Delivery-only actions, and certain delivery actions carrying an additional monetary claim, remain summary cause.

So the practical test is not only how much your claim is worth. It is also what you are asking the court to do. If you want money, simple procedure. If you want a thing back, or you want somebody out of a property, you may be in summary cause instead.

What happens above five thousand pounds

Above the simple procedure limit you are into ordinary cause in the sheriff court, which is a fuller and more formal procedure and where most people will want a solicitor.

There is a second threshold worth knowing. For an ordinary money claim, section 39 of the Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 gives the sheriff court exclusive competence up to one hundred thousand pounds, exclusive of interest and expenses. Section 39(2) puts it flatly: proceedings within that value “may be brought only in the sheriff court and may not be brought in any other court”. You cannot choose the Court of Session for a money claim below that figure because it sounds more serious.

Read section 39(1) to (4) together rather than picking one subsection out of it, and note two qualifications: family proceedings are treated separately under section 39(3), and there is a power to remit exceptional cases upwards under section 92(7). The hundred thousand pound line is a rule about ordinary money claims, not a general statement about every civil action in Scotland.

What it costs to raise a claim

The fee for lodging a simple procedure claim form is twenty-three pounds for an action for payment of money of three hundred pounds or less, and one hundred and twenty-seven pounds for other actions. Those figures come from item 16 of Schedule 1 to the Sheriff Court Fees Order 2026 and apply from 1st April 2026 to 31st March 2027. Court fees are uprated regularly, so check the current order before relying on them.

Two things people get caught by. The twenty-three pound band is specifically an action for payment of money of that amount, not any claim that happens to be worth three hundred pounds or less. And the lodging fee is not the only fee — an appeal carries a separate fee of seventy-four pounds, and service by a sheriff officer costs fifteen pounds plus the officer’s own charge.

Fee exemption is available, broadly for people receiving civil legal aid and for people in receipt of certain benefits. The current fees order sets out which benefits qualify, and the sheriff clerk’s office will tell you whether you fall within it.

There is no pre-action protocol for a debt claim

English guidance on debt claims talks about a pre-action protocol and a letter before action, with consequences for failing to follow them. Scotland has no general equivalent for an ordinary debt claim. The only compulsory pre-action protocol in the sheriff court is the Personal Injury Pre-Action Protocol, and Chapter 3A of the Ordinary Cause Rules is expressly about personal injury.

That does not mean you should raise a claim without warning. Writing first, setting out what is owed and why, and giving a deadline costs nothing and often ends the matter. It is simply not a procedural requirement here, and nobody can penalise you for going straight to court.

Particular kinds of proceedings do carry their own statutory notices or pre-action requirements — mortgage repossession and social landlord rent arrears among them. Those are specific statutory schemes, not a general protocol for recovering money.

What happens if you lose

Simple procedure is built to be used without a solicitor, and the rules limit what the losing party can be made to pay. That limit is the single most important thing to understand before raising a claim, because it is what makes the process survivable if it goes against you.

The limits are set by the Sheriff Court Simple Procedure (Limits on Award of Expenses) Order 2016, as amended with effect from 1st April 2019. Where the value of the claim is three hundred pounds or less, no award of expenses may be made. Where it is over three hundred pounds and up to one thousand five hundred pounds, expenses may not exceed one hundred and fifty pounds. Where it is over one thousand five hundred pounds and up to three thousand pounds, expenses may not exceed ten per cent of the value of the claim. Above three thousand pounds, that Order sets no cap of its own.

You should also be clear that winning and being paid are two different things. A decree is a court order saying the money is due. If it is ignored, enforcement is a separate step involving diligence — earnings arrestment, bank arrestment or attachment — and that has its own procedure and its own costs.

This page is general information about Scottish civil procedure. It is not legal advice and no solicitor and client relationship arises from reading it. Court fees and procedural limits change; the figures here are stated as at April 2026.