From 1 December 2025, civil court rules in Scotland will allow required public notices to be made on the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) website. The Act of Sederunt (Intimation and Service) 2025, made on 29 October and laid before the Scottish Parliament on 30 October, creates a formal online alternative to the traditional practice of posting items on the “walls of court”. The Court of Session approved the rules following proposals from the Scottish Civil Justice Council.
The instrument applies across the Court of Session and Sheriff Court to any Act of Sederunt, whenever made, and to the Ordinary Cause Rules 1993. It does not apply to the Act of Sederunt (Simple Procedure) 2016 or the Sheriff Appeal Court Rules 2021, which continue to operate under their existing arrangements. For most civil business, this means publication on the SCTS website will now satisfy an intimation or display duty that previously required a physical notice within a court building.
Where a person’s address is unknown and the rules require a citation, service or notice to be given by intimation, display or publication on any part of a court building, that requirement may instead be met by making specific information publicly available on the SCTS website. The minimum information is the type of action and the names and addresses of the parties. Practitioners should ensure their templates contain these fields so that website publication is complete on day one.
The Act also modernises several existing ‘walls of court’ provisions. Where rules require intimation or display on the walls of court, publication on the SCTS website will suffice for, among others, Chancery Procedure Rules publication requirements, Sheriff Court Company Insolvency Rules intimation and advertisement in company cases, Judicial Factors first‑order intimation duties, and the Messengers‑at‑Arms and Sheriff Officers application process. These are long‑standing rules that assumed physical display; the new instrument provides a standing online route to meet them.
For Court of Session petitions, the intimation duty in rule 14.7 can be met online by publishing the petitioner’s name, the purpose of the petition and the name of the petitioner’s solicitor. The underlying rule will otherwise continue to govern service and any additional methods the court considers appropriate. Firms should check their petition packs now so these particulars are set out clearly for SCTS publication on or after 1 December.
In commissary matters and edictal citations, the intimation requirement in the Act of Sederunt (Edictal Citations, Commissary Petitions and Petitions of Service) 1971 may likewise be discharged online by publishing the petitioner’s name, the purpose of the petition and the name and address of the deceased. This brings a consistent approach to estate cases that previously depended on a mix of newspaper and courthouse notices.
Two additional display duties move online by default when courts choose to use the new route. Lists of motions in vacation under Court of Session rule 23.7(4) may be made publicly available on the SCTS website rather than placed on the walls of court. And under the 1999 Summary Applications, Statutory Applications and Appeals etc. Rules, the sheriff clerk’s notice of the date and place of trial may be displayed online in place of a notice in the sheriff clerk’s office. Timetables and hearing sequences are unaffected.
This change is permissive rather than mandatory. Physical display remains competent where appropriate, but an SCTS website notice will now meet the rule in the same way. The approach aligns with SCTS’s wider civil digitisation programme-particularly the expansion of Civil Online and case‑tracking services-and is intended to provide a single, accessible point for the public to view required notices.
Policy Wire analysis: transparency and privacy considerations will sit alongside operational gains. Publishing names and, in some cases, addresses online supports open justice and predictable time limits, but requires careful handling of personally identifiable information. The Scottish Civil Justice Council’s consultation included a Data Protection Impact Assessment; firms should follow any SCTS guidance on redaction and content to minimise risk while meeting the new obligations.
For solicitors and court officers, the immediate actions are practical. Update house styles for petitions and commissary applications with the exact particulars the SCTS site must display; agree internal checks so the correct details are provided at enrolment; and brief clients that online visibility will replace, in many cases, a paper notice pinned in a courthouse. From 1 December 2025, any failure to supply the required fields may delay valid intimation even though the method has moved online.