Justiciary Office
Justiciary Office provides the administrative services for the High Court of Justiciary and the Court of Criminal Appeal. The offices are situated within the High Court of Justiciary, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh. The public offices are open Monday to Friday from 10am to 1pm and 2pm to 4pm.
Reporting to the Principal Clerk of Session and Justiciary, the head of the office is the Deputy Principal Clerk of Justiciary. He has ultimate day to day responsibility for the administration of the office and for the programming, in consultation with Crown Office, of the business of High Courts including Appeal Courts. In addition he can authorise the transcript of proceedings of jury trials subject to payment of the appropriate fee.
Within the office there are four Depute Clerks of Justiciary who act as clerks of court in criminal trials throughout Scotland and in the Criminal Appeal Court.
The office is under the control of the Office Manager who has day to day responsibility for the management of the staff. In addition to this managerial function he has a range of technical duties. He checks applications to the court for a remedy where no other remedy is provided for by statute. These are known as petitions to the nobile officium . He checks bail appeals from the lower courts and responds to technical queries from members of the public through correspondence, telephone calls and persons attending at the office.
For administrative purposes the office is divided into three sections:
First Instance, Criminal Appeals and Justiciary Appeals.
Justiciary Office West
The Justiciary Office West is located within the High Court of Justiciary, Saltmarket, Glasgow and was set up this year (Mar 2005) following the recommendations of Lord Bonomys High Court Reform. It provides the administrative support for all cases calling as Preliminary Hearings & trials within Glasgow and the West of Scotland (Paisley & Kilmarnock). The office consists of an Office Manager and 2 Administrative Officers. The High Court Unit at Glasgow is under the supervision of the Court Manager who has the day to day responsibility for the administration and management of staff along with the programming of the Court business for Glasgow & the West of Scotland in consultation with the Crown.
First Instance.
This section is responsible for administrative support to High Court Sittings throughout Scotland. It instruct the Sheriff Clerk of the appropriate district to issue citations to potential jurors. It deals with enquiries from potential jurors seeking advice on whether they may be excused from this duty for a variety of reasons e.g. ill health; holiday arrangements etc. The staff process all bail appeals from the Sheriff and District Courts throughout Scotland and send notice of the disposal to the various penal institutions where appellants are detained. The section acts as a liaison point for all reports requested in relation to High Court trials. The section consists of a section head, one administrative officer and one administrative assistant.
Criminal Appeals.
The Criminal Appeals section processes all appeals in solemn cases (procedure where during a trial the presiding judge sits with a jury), of which there are about 800 per year. It requests reports from the presiding judge, transmit these to the appellant and the Crown and processes applications for leave to appeal. It sends notice of the result to parties. Where leave to appeal is granted, the staff assign cases to the appropriate Court and eventually send details of the outcome to the prison service, police records and the judge.
The staff deal with a range of queries in relation to the above matters whether from correspondence, telephone calls or persons attending at the public counter. There are three officers in the section, a section head, an administrative officer and an administrative assistant.
Justiciary Appeals.
Appeals from lower courts against conviction (stated cases), and appeals against sentence are processed by this section. There is an average around some 3000 appeals per year. The section, prepares appeals for a single judge to determine whether leave to appeal should be granted, and notifies parties of the result of this application. If leave to appeal is granted it assigns the case to the appropriate roll. If leave to appeal is refused it issues any warrant to the appropriate authorities and intimates the result to the lower court. The officers also deal with a range of queries whether by post, telephone or from persons attending at the public counter. The section consists of the section head, one administrative officer and one administrative assistant.