Filing and serving documents

When completing Form 3A, the claimant decides whether they want to ‘send’ or ‘formally serve’ the claim form (C.10). If they choose to send the claim form, they must follow Part 6 in Schedule 1 of the Simple Procedure Rules.

Part 6.7 Simple Procedure Rules: How can a party send something to another party?

(1) A party may send something to another party in one of four ways:

(a) posting it to that party or that party’s representative using a next-day postal service which records delivery;

(b) emailing it to that party or that party’s representative, using an email address given on the claim form, ’response form’ or ’time to pay application’;

(c) making it available to that party or that party’s representative using the portal on the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service website;

(d) delivering it to a document exchange of which that party or that party’s representative is a member.

(2) If none of those ways has worked, a party may send it to another party by sheriff officer using one of the methods of formal service mentioned in Part 18.

If the documents are to be ‘served’ formally, that may only be done by a solicitor, a sheriff officer or the sheriff clerk and must follow Part 18.

When these rules require a document to be formally served, the first attempt must be by a next-day postal service which records delivery. If service by post has not worked, a sheriff officer may formally serve a document in one of three ways:

•delivering it personally; or
•leaving it in the hands of a resident at the person’s home; or
•leaving it in the hands of an employee at the person’s place of business.

If the claimant is required to formally serve the documents (in the claim) on the respondent, they must also complete Form 6C and return it to the court.