7.4 Reasons for a court hierarchy

Question 1

What are the civil reasons for a court heirarchy?

Answer 1

• administrative conviencience
• appeals

Question 2

What is administrative convienience?

Answer 2

Having a court hierarchy means that cases can be distributed according to their seriousness and complexity.

Minor civil disputes can be heard quickly and less expensively in the Magistrates’ Court.

More seriousand complexcivil disputes are heard in the County and Supreme Court.

Class actions thattake longer and require judges to have greater expertise are heard in the Supreme Court.

Question 3

What are appeals in relation to the court hierarchy?

Answer 3

Parties unhappy with a civil court decision can appeal to a higher court based on:

point of law – a party claims that the law or legal principle has been incorrectly applied

question of fact – the version of facts accepted by the court is claimed to be incorrect

the remedy awarded – a party is dissatisfied with an aspect of the remedy.

Question 4

What happens if there was no court hierarchy in relation to appeals?

Answer 4

Without a court hierarchy, there would be no superior courts to review decisions of inferior courts and parties would not know to whom they could appeal.

Question 5

What happens if there is no court hierarchy in relation to administrative convenience?

Answer 5

The process of civil trials will be slowed if all cases were heard in the same court, increasing the backlog of cases

Question 6

How do appeals uphold the principles of justice?

Answer 6

FAIRNESS
- having appeals allows you to purse the case further to feel you are treated with impartiality

EQUALITY
- if you feel as though the trial has not been equal, you can pursue it further

Question 7

How does adminstrative convinience uphold the principles of justice?

Answer 7

ACCESS
- administrative convenience ensures greater timeliness, ensuring everyone can have access to courts