Is it possible for appellant to examine the written grounds of judgment by the Sessions Court Judge before deciding whether to file an appeal?

Question

1. Appellant wants to examine the written grounds of judgment by the Sessions Court Judge before deciding whether to file an appeal. Is it possible? It is stated that the Sessions ct judge did not give any reason for his decision.

2. Can appellant file an appeal only on the basis of costs?

Answer 1

Based on the parallel of the English High Court, there may well be no written reasons, if the Judge said something like "This claim, even if I accept everything in the papers, is plainly barred by the relevant Limitation Act. I accordingly dismiss it with costs." That paragraph is 'the judgment', and there will be a recording of it somewhere. You are entitled to a copy if you wish, but you may well have to pay to have it transcribed. (An additional point occurs to me; in some cases where permission to appeal from a lower court is sought, the test is 'in the opinion of a senior judge' or something similar, so "Rejected" is the whole of the decision, and there is no appeal from it. The question is nowhere near clear enough to say whether this applies.)

Appeals on the basis of costs only are not automatically barred, but neither are they automatically allowed to proceed. You would be well advised to consult a lawyer since a) appeals are notoriously complex and counter-intuitive and b) the Lord Ordinary thought the case so obvious that it was not worth a written judgment.