This book is a practical guide to conducting a proof in the sheriff court, based on the author’s many years’ experience of presenting evidence at proofs and hearings in the sheriff court, the Court of Session and before tribunals. The guide highlights the importance of risk management in an area of law that is fraught with hazards concerning costs, timescales and adverse outcomes. It also identifies many useful steps that ought to be taken with a view to minimising such hazards and making the process of conducting a proof as smooth and as painless as possible. The book is aimed primarily at practitioners and deals with managing clients, advice on preparation and how best to cover one’s back in this perilous area of legal practice. Although reference is made to court rules and textbooks the book is first and foremost a practical guide. In this Second Edition, the author takes accounts of the settling of the dust after Covid-19, the spread of the use of affidavit evidence and the rise of Artificial Intelligence.
