Lynsay Cargill

This Practice Note provides guidance on diligence against earnings under Scots law and covers, among other things, earnings arrestment, current maintenance arrestment and conjoined arrestment orders under the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 (D(S)A 1987). It also briefly considers deduction from earnings orders under the Child Support Act 1991 (CSA 1991). In doing so it addresses, among other things: the circumstances in which these forms of diligence are appropriate; the need for a Debt Advice and Information Package (DAIP); obligations on the creditor, employer and debtor and the sanctions for failing to comply with those obligations; guidance on when an earnings arrestment ceases to have effect; and how and when the validity of an earnings arrestment or current maintenance arrestment can be challenged.

This Practice Note explains the concept of limitation in Scots law and the types of actions to which the limitation provisions in the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973 (PL(S)A 1973 or ‘the 1973 Act’) apply. In doing so, it considers the difference between prescription and limitation under Scottish law and the limitation periods in a number of different actions including personal injury claims, defamation, harassment and consumer protection. It also offers guidance on pleading limitation as well as the court’s ability to extend a limitation period in Scottish civil claims.

This Practice Note explains the concept of negative prescription and positive prescription under Scots law, focusing on the five year negative prescription (or short negative prescription) and twenty year negative prescription (or long negative prescription) periods as provided for in the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973 (PL(S)A 1973). It also considers some other negative prescriptive periods (such as for joint wrongdoers in contract and delict and in consumer protection) and offers guidance on some other key prescription concepts including calculation of the prescriptive period (or ‘appropriate date’), circumstances where start of the prescriptive period may be delayed (or postponed), continuous prescriptive periods, interruption of the prescriptive period, ‘relevant claim’ and ‘relevant acknowledgment’.

This Practice Note considers some key developments relating to the current law on prescription in Scotland including the seismic change occasioned by the Supreme Court decisions in Morrison v ICL Plastics and Gordon’s Trustees v Campbell Riddell, together with the decisions in Clark v Turnbull, Heather Capital v Levy & McRae, Midlothian Council v Blyth and Blyth, and Loretto Housing Association v Cruden Building and WPH Developments v Young & Gault. It also considers the Scottish Law Commission Report on Prescription and the Prescription (Scotland) Act 2018.