One of the less well known provisions of the Courts Reform (Scotland) Bill is an increase in the level of aliment that can be claimed under the new Simple Procedure.
The idea is that people ought to be able to raise their own actions. Under the Bill, aliment for a child under 18 can be claimed up to £100 per week and for a spouse or a student child up to £200 per week.
Although the procedure will be very much simpler than the traditional “ordinary” cases which we are used to, there is a worry that there is a failure to recognise the huge complexity which can arise in some aliment cases in the Courts. Interpreting the rules of aliment is not an easy matter even if the procedural steps are simplified.
For something as important as aliment there is a strong argument for saying that the more formal and more transparent methods would be better than the potentially rough and ready context of Simple Procedure.
The new procedure will not affect anybody’s liability for child support via the Child Maintenance Service. Instead it covers those parts of the child aliment which the statutory child support system cannot reach, such as for students.
For more information see our Child Support and Maintenance page or Contact us.
Image credit : David-HC via Flickr Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
