Going to Court
Sometimes at a Hearing, grounds of referral (the reason for a child being at a Hearing) are read out and children or their parents or carers have to say whether they think the reasons are correct or not. This is usually at the first Hearing.
If you or your child do not agree with the reasons for the Hearing, or if you are unable to understand the grounds of referral, perhaps because the grounds of referral are complicated, the Panel Members can’t make a final decision. The Panel Members might ask the Reporter to send the case to a Sheriff Court so that a Sheriff can decide if the reasons are correct.
In Scotland a Sheriff is a judge in a court. The Sheriff will listen to what is said about the reasons. If the Sheriff decides that the reasons are correct, then the matter will be sent back to another Children’s Hearing. They will then decide what would be the best way of giving you whatever help or support they think that you or your family need. If the Sheriff decides they are not correct, then there won’t be another Children’s Hearing about the matter.
Do my children or children in my care have to go to court?
Children and young people have the right to attend. The Sheriff may decide that they do not have to go as it might make them upset, or they might be too young to understand. If your child does need to attend, courts do everything they can to make children and young people feel at ease.
Children and young people will get sent a letter from the Reporter telling them when and where they and their parents/carers need to attend court. The child and their parents/carer have the right to have a lawyer to speak for them in court and there will be information about that in the letter. Sometimes the Sheriff can ask a person called a Safeguarder or a ‘Curator ad Litem’ to come to court to look after the interests of the child or young person.
How long will it take?
The Reporter must contact the Sheriff Court within seven days of the Children’s Hearing taking place. The court then has to arrange a date for the child and their parents/carers to come to court within 28 days from the date of the Children’s Hearing when the grounds for referral were read out.
The length of time court takes varies. Sometimes the Reporter or the lawyers, may need more time, and the Sheriff might agree that the case can continue until a later date. The Sheriff will try and make a decision as soon as possible, but sometimes this may mean you all have to go to court more than once.
Who is in the courtroom?
The Sheriff, the Children’s Reporter, your lawyer/s and sometimes a Safeguarder/Curator ad Litem. There will also be someone called a clerk who looks after the court’s papers and a court officer who is responsible for helping the Sheriff and other people in the court.
No members of the public are allowed into the courtroom.
What will happen?
Sometimes the lawyers and the Reporter discuss the grounds of referral and can reach an agreement about what is correct or not. They would let the Sheriff know this and the Sheriff might decide that the case be sent back to a Children’s Hearing.
If the lawyers and the Reporter cannot agree what is correct, the Sheriff will have to decide. To allow the Sheriff to make a decision, he/she might have to hear from witnesses. A witness is a person who has information about something and may have to tell the court about it. The Reporter will have witnesses who they think show the grounds are correct.
The lawyers may have witnesses who they think show the grounds are not correct. The Reporter and the lawyers will ask the witnesses questions so that they can tell the Sheriff what they know.
Sometimes the young person will need to be a witness. The Reporter will always try to make sure that a young person does not have to be a witness unless it is absolutely necessary.
What can the Sheriff decide?
Once the Sheriff has heard from all the witnesses he/she can make a decision.
The Sheriff could decide that the grounds of referral are correct and send the case back to a Children’s Hearing so that the Panel Members can make a final decision (see going to Hearing). This is sometimes called establishing the grounds and remitting them back to a Hearing.
Or
The Sheriff could decide that the grounds of referral are not true and that would be the end of the case. It would not go back to a Children’s Hearing.
SCRA Going to Court flyer
Going to Court flyer (93 kb)
