How we check this content

These FAQ guides are written from established primary sources — UK and Scottish legislation, government guidance, and the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service — and checked for accuracy against those sources before publishing.

Our approach

Each question is answered in plain English, based on the current statutory framework and well-established legal principles for Scotland. Where a figure, threshold, or procedural rule could change over time (such as a statutory cap or a court's name), we check it directly against the relevant official source — legislation.gov.uk, gov.scot, or the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service — rather than relying on general knowledge alone.

Compensation figures

The compensation calculator's solatium figures are informed by the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG), 18th edition, published 9 April 2026 — used in Scotland as a persuasive cross-check alongside Scottish case law, not as a binding starting point. We cross-check the figures used against published comparison tables from law firms who track each edition's changes in detail — including DAC Beachcroft's 18th-vs-17th-edition comparison table, used to verify the back injury and brain/head injury brackets. As the JCG's own introduction puts it, "no two injuries are the same in their effect" — these figures are a starting range, not a fixed formula, and a qualified solicitor is needed to value any individual case.

Keeping it current

Legal frameworks are periodically reviewed and updated. See our recent changes page for a log of updates made to this content.

Since October 2026 the official pages behind the questions and answers on each guide are also checked automatically. Every night a small program re-reads a few of the 17 pages we rely on, on a rota: the CICA claim page about once a week; the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973 ss. 17 and 19A, the Damages (Scotland) Act 2011, the 2024 discount-rate regulations and the 2019 Act behind them, the QOCS and success-fee rules, the Courts Reform (Scotland) Act, the 2016 personal injury pre-action protocol, the Scottish Courts simple procedure guide, the CICA scheme, the Judicial College page, HSE RIDDOR, the MIB, SLAB and SPSO pages about once a month. If a page has changed in a way that affects an answer, a suggested rewrite is put in front of the editor. Nothing is published automatically: only wording the editor has approved appears on a guide, marked “Updated” with the date, and each guide shows when its pages were last checked.

Limitations

This content is general legal information, not legal advice, and doesn't consider your individual circumstances. It's not a substitute for advice from a qualified solicitor, who can properly assess your specific situation.