Sheriff courts hear civil cases as a bench trial without a jury, and make determinations and judgments alone.

However, the specialist all-Scotland Sheriff Personal Injury Court (based in Edinburgh) has the ability to hear cases with a jury of twelve.

Judgments of the sheriff courts in criminal offences handled through summary procedures, and civil cases handled through small claims and summary process, can be appealed to the Sheriff Appeal Court.

Criminal offences heard on indictment through solemn procedure are appealed to the High Court of Justiciary.

Generally, one of the more powerful local lords in each county was appointed and the office became hereditary in his family.

The hereditary sheriff later delegated his judicial functions to a trained lawyer called a sheriff-depute.

[1]: 734  Since the part-time sheriff-depute was not compelled to reside within his sheriffdom and could carry on his practice as advocate, it became common for a depute to appoint a sheriff-substitute who acted in his absence.

Until 1999, there were also "temporary sheriffs" who were appointed by the executive year by year and only sat for particular days by invitation; this class of sheriff was abolished as being inconsistent with judicial independence (contrary to article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights) following the decision of the High Court of Justiciary in Starrs v Ruxton.

Courts such as those in the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow have a large number of staff and can in one day deal with hundreds of cases.

[13] Among his 206 proposals were:[13] In November 2010 the Scottish Government released its response to the Review accepting "the majority of Lord Gill's recommendations" including expressly the following proposals:[14] In October 2011, the Scottish Government announced consultation on appointments to a new Scottish Civil Justice Council to draft rules of procedure for civil proceedings in the Court of Session and sheriff court.