Eric Baijal is Head of Litigation at Drever and Heddle, a firm operating from offices in Thurso, Kirkwall and Fraserburgh (and another location in early course…). Just under two years ago Eric and his family relocated from Fife to Wick, Caithness, and he offers his regular insights into life and law in the land of the dark skies.

Let me introduce myself. Up until two years ago I was the normal type of litigator. I lived in the central belt. I spent my time covering cases in the Sheriff court and the Court of Session. Clients seemed to like me. I seemed to have good prospects where I was (in my experience the normal litigator has quite an ego…). I was considering going to the bar: Instead, I moved to Wick.

Sometimes, for amusement, when visiting a Sheriff Court that is new to me, I will ask the practitioners if they know where Wick is. Recently an Edinburgh agent asked me if Wick was in the Western Isles or in Orkney! It is of course in neither. Wick is 106 miles north of Inverness, around 15 miles south of John O'Groats. It is around a five-hour drive from Edinburgh and is a vibrant example of another town caught in the depression of the demise of the fishing industry.

But Wick it was. I had not gone completely mad. We were expecting a second child and the babysitters (sorry the grandparents) lived there. I had also met a man that was as mad as me. Archie Millar was and is Drever and Heddle's managing partner.

He invited me to the poshest restaurant in the Highlands to tell me about the firm. I recall choking on my pigeon breast (not that there was enough in the portion to choke anyone) when he told me that he looked forward to us running Court of Session litigation in the highlands. Perhaps I didn’t believe him, but we stepped North in faith, and have been travelling South ever since (probably now the A9’s most regular user)!

This all seems ages ago now. As I write I am on paternity leave following the birth of child number three and have been interrupted stopping child number two (referred to above) from forward rolling off the kitchen table. You will be pleased to know however, that I am not going to tell you primarily about my wild children or the places I pass on the A9 (but don’t miss Ballinluig Services for a bacon roll). Neither is it about the litigation I do in the central belt. 

Wick Sheriff Court is an interesting place to appear. Firstly, it is famous for having a Sheriff sacked; practitioners of a certain age remember the late Sheriff Ewan Stewart with a mixture of fondness, amusement and bemusement. Secondly, the Sheriff Clerk’s staff make the best coffee to be found in the Sheriffdom. However, like many rural courts Wick has to face up to what life will be like if the proposals of the Civil Justice Review are implemented.

We will be better off than some Sheriff Court Districts. Wick has fourteen sitting days a month, and it is clear to me that at the very least will require to have a District Judge with Wick as his base. However, when looking at the Court’s business, it quickly becomes clear that post-Gill, and assuming the government implement the recommendations in full, there will be a massive reduction in the need for a Sheriff. The majority of the crime is summary. The majority of the civil work is family, and is likely to be heard in front of the District Judge or transferred to the Sheriffdom Family Specialist.

The public would undoubtedly benefit from the reforms. Great care will have to be taken, however, to ensure that local access to justice is preserved as much as possible. For example, if we are to have child welfare hearings with, potentially, parties over a hundred miles from the sheriff, the IT infrastructure will have to be robust. Thought has to be given to details like court sitting times being appropriate to parties travelling long distances to hearings. For rural practioners the idea of conducting procedural business by telephone or video conference is very welcome. Having done the whole “how many sheriffdoms can you do in a week”, the idea of being in the car less is very appealing. It also makes it makes it easier for rural practices to compete on a more even playing field with central belt firms. With reduced overheads and reduced travelling time you never know who might be interested in instructing the Caithness lawyers…

I thought for all those IT skeptics (you know who you are) it would be worth recording how well Web 2.0 has been working for me. An advocate friend of mine introduced me to Twitter about 6 months ago. It has been excellent for brand profiling. It is also very useful for firing a quick question to a group. As we all saw in relation to the Guardian gagging order it is very effective in spreading information. Tweeting won’t be for every lawyer. As I read recently when we got telephones, we did not go on about having telephones; we simply used then when it was useful to. Most importantly social networking may redefine the way we have to operate; given that we operate away from population centres then to rural lawyers it should be an excellent opportunity.

Eric