Evidence (Scotland) Act 1866
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1866 c. 112 |
Evidence (Scotland) Act, 1866
(29 & 30 Vict.) C A P. CXII.
An Act to make Provision in regard to the Mode of taking Evidence in Civil Causes in the Court of Session inScotland .
[10th August 1866]
W HEREAS the Practice of taking Proofs by Commission in Causes before the Court of Session inScotland is productive of unnecessary Expense and of great Delay in the Administration of Justice:
Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, as follows:
1 Evidence to be taken before the Lord Ordinary.
1. Except as herein-after enacted, it shall not be competent in any Cause depending before the Court of Session to grant Commission to take Proof; but where in such Causes it is, according to the existing Practice, competent to take Proof by Commission, and where in such Causes Proof shall be allowed (which the Lord Ordinary is hereby authorized to allow without the Consent of both Parties, and without reporting to and obtaining the Leave of the Inner House), a Diet of Proof shall be appointed, which Diet may be fixed, in the Discretion of the Lord Ordinary, either during the Sitting of the Court or in Vacation, at which the Evidence shall be led before the Lord Ordinary, and he shall himself take and either write down with his own Hand the oral Evidence, in which Case it shall be read over to the Witness by the Judge in open Court, and shall be signed by the Witness, if he can write; or the Lord Ordinary shall record the Evidence by dictating it to a Clerk, in which Case it shall also be read over to and signed by the Witness; or the Lord Ordinary shall cause the Evidence to be taken down and recorded in Shorthand by a Writer skilled in Shorthand Writing, to whom the Oath De fideli administratione officii shall be administered; and the Lord Ordinary may, if he think fit, dictate to the Shorthand Writer the Evidence which he is to record; and the Shorthand Writer shall afterwards write out the Evidence so taken by him; and the extended Notes of such Shorthand Writer, certified by the presiding Judge to be correct, shall be the Record of the oral Evidence in the Cause; and the Lord Ordinary shall himself take or dictate to his Clerk or Shorthand Writer a Note of the Documents adduced; and any Ruling of the Lord Ordinary in reference to...
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