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New personal injury specialist sheriff appointed

Sheriff Charles Alastair Walls has been appointed to the National Personal Injury Court.

Sheriff Charles Alastair Walls has been appointed as a specialist to hear cases in the National Personal Injury Court.

Sheriff Walls has been designated by Sheriff Principal Nigel Ross, Sheriff Principal of Lothian and Borders, as a specialist in actions of damages for personal injury.

A graduate of the University of Glasgow and the University of Michigan, Sheriff Walls qualified as a solicitor in 1998 and as solicitor advocate in 2004. Prior to his appointment as a Sheriff of Lothian & Borders in April 2024, he was in private practice and dealt with a wide variety of matters including commercial disputes, professional negligence claims and personal injury litigation.

The creation of the all-Scotland jurisdiction PI court, located at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, was among a raft of significant reforms to the Scottish legal system which came into effect in 2015.

The court has jurisdiction in PI cases exceeding £5,000 and workplace-related PI actions exceeding £1,000, and any workplace-related PI case under £1,000 remitted to the Personal Injury court.

PI actions can still be lodged in local courts, but court rules have been made to allow civil jury trials in the National Personal Injury Court at Edinburgh.

A key element of the court is the quick and efficient disposal of motions by electronic means, allowing for email intimation and submission of motions and interlocutors. It also provides clerks of court with a quasi-judicial function to consider and grant motions of a common and straightforward nature.

The designation of the specialist sheriffs follows a direction from the Lord President under section 34 of the Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, determining that actions of damages for, or arising from, personal injuries or the death of a person from personal injuries are a category of case that is considered to be suited to being dealt with by sheriffs that specialise in that category of case.

The Sheriff Principal designated Sheriff Charles Alastair Walls of the Sheriffdom of Lothian and Borders as a specialist under the powers conferred on him by section 35(2) of the Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014.

Appointments
12 December 2024 Victoria Weldon