Lord Gill was critical of the civil justice system in place at the time, describing it as "a Victorian model that had survived by means of periodic piecemeal reforms", and concluding that, "It is failing the litigant and it is failing society.

He did propose that, with leave, further appeals could be made to the Inner House, and this would allow for complex or important questions of law to be dealt with by the Senators of the College of Justice in the Supreme Courts of Scotland.

[2]: 21, 63, 64, 66–67 The Scottish Government, in 2010, accepted the analysis by Lord Gill there were problems facing the civil courts of Scotland.

The Scottish Government recognised that costs were rising, there were excessive delays, and too many rescheduled hearings.

Lord Gill also recommended that judgments of the court in criminal appeals should be binding on sheriffs throughout Scotland, as Lord Gill recommended: The decisions of the court would be binding on sheriffs throughout Scotland, to allow the creation of a consistent and coherent body of case law.

The expectation was that this would expedite appeals from summary proceedings in the sheriff and justice of the peace courts.

It was through the amendments process that the limit for civil actions in the exclusive jurisdiction of the sheriff courts was reduced to £100,000[6] The Justice Committee considered the proposals in the Courts Reform (Scotland) Bill and published a report on 9 May 2014.

The Faculty asserted that the Court of Session was already effective in dealing with civil cases, would remove choice for the litigant, and would deny them the right to appoint counsel (an advocate.)

[8]: 1  As there was an existing common law test that required a sheriff court to sanction the use of counsel in a case.

[9] The Faculty was also concerned that removing low-value cases from the Court of Session would deny advocates who are early in their career the opportunity develop their litigation skills, and thus make it harder for them to be ready to handle high-value or complex cases.

By the nature of things, it may be in relatively straightforward cases at the lower value end of the spectrum that advocates can obtain the experience early in their careers which equips them, as their careers develop, to undertake higher value complex litigation.

Thus, they concluded the reforms could harm the long term viability of the legal profession in Scotland.

[5]: Section 112 An application to remit an appeal to the Inner House of the Court of Session was rejected by the Sheriff Appeal Court, as advised by Lord Drummond Young sitting as a Lord Ordinary, in the case of First Time Limited vs Alexander Fraser (Liquidator of Denmore Investments Limited).

We preferred the submission of the respondent to the effect that the case should not be viewed as having the prospect of establishing an important precedent.The Appeal Sheriffs believe that the appellants arguments would potentially allow for the case to be resolved without proof, and that no significant question of law was at stake, nor was there any compelling public interest.

The rules for criminal appeals were instituted by the High Court of Justiciary by Act of Adjournal which came into force on 22 September 2015, and the civil rules were instituted by the Court of Session through Act of Sederunt that came into force on 1 January 2016.

[12][13][23] The President of the Court is Sheriff Principal Mhairi Stephen, QC, whose sheriffdom is Lothian and Borders, and the Vice President of the Court is Sheriff Principal Ian Abercrombie, QC, who sheriffdom is South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway.

The clerk has significant responsibility for arranging hearings of the court, handling documents from litigants, and preparing copies for any party to the case.