Civil Courts

Question 1

What are the 2 courts civil cases are dealt with in?

Answer 1

• High Court

- County Court

Question 2

What 2 judges hear cases in the County Court?

Answer 2

Heard in public by:

• District Judges
• Circuit Judges

Question 3

What are the 3 divisions in the High Court called?

Answer 3

• Queen’s Bench division
• Chancery Division
• Family Division

Question 4

What are the characteristics of the Queen’s Bench Division?

Answer 4

• Tried by a single Judge
• Juries are ONLY used for cases of fraud, libel, slander, malicious prosecution, and false imprisonment
• Biggest of the divisions
• Hears civil appeals and judicial review cases
• Deals with contract and tort cases generally over £100,000

Question 5

What is the role of the Administrative Court in the Queen’s Bench Division?

Answer 5

It supervises the lawfulness of the conduct of national and local government, inferior courts and tribunals, and of other public bodies through judicial review

Question 6

What are the characteristics of the Chancery Division?

Answer 6

• Tried by a single Judge
• Juries are NEVER used
• Settles disputes concerned with; insolvency, enforcement of mortgages, copyrights and patents, intellectual property
• There is a special Companies court which deals with winding up companies

Question 7

What are the main jurisdictions of the County Court?

Answer 7

• All contract and tort cases
• All cases for the recovery of land
• Disputes over equitable matters such as trusts up to a value of £350,000
• Winner claims all costs

Question 8

What are the characteristics of the Family Division?

Answer 8

• Heard by a single judge
• Cases involving disputes about which country’s laws should apply, international family matter cases concerning The Hague Convention
• Deals with applications for habeus corpus where a child’s liberty is involved
• 19 judges

Question 9

Why should pursuing a case in court be a last resort?

Answer 9

• ## Can be very expensive (even more so if your case is lost as you have to pay for the other party’s costs)

Question 10

What are ‘pre-action protocols’

Answer 10

• A list of things to be done which, if not followed correctly and required information is not given, may result in being liable for certain costs if they make a court claim

Question 11

What is the purpose of ‘pre-action protocols’

Answer 11

• It attempts to prevent the need for so many court cases to be started

Question 12

What court would a claim for £100,000 or less start in?

Answer 12

County Court

Question 13

What court would a Personal Injury claim for £50,000 or less start in?

Answer 13

County Court

Question 14

What court would a claim for over £100,000 start in?

Answer 14

High Court or County Court

Question 15

What court would a Personal Injury claim for over £50,000 start in?

Answer 15

High Court or County Court

Question 16

What track and court would a claim less than £10,000 be dealt with on?

Answer 16

• Small claims track

- County Court

Question 17

What track and court would a Personal Injury claim under £1,000 be dealt with on?

Answer 17

• Small claims track

- County Court

Question 18

What are three specialist individual courts in the Queen’s Bench Division and their purposes?

Answer 18

• Commercial Court: has special judges dealing with insurances, banking and other commercial matters
• Admiralty Court: deals with disputes at sea
• Technology and Construction Court: deals with complex building, engineering of computer litigation disputes

Question 19

Characteristics of Small Claims Track

Answer 19

• Usually heard in private
• Parties encouraged to represent themselves
• Cannot claim the cost of using a lawyer
• Heard by District Judge

Question 20

Characteristics of Fast Track cases

Answer 20

• Strict timetable for pre-trial procedures
• Aim to hear case within 30 weeks
• heard by Circuit Judge
• hearing limited to 1 day
• restricted number of expert witnesses

Question 21

Characteristics of Multi-track cases

Answer 21

-judge expected to manage the case, such as:

• identifying issues at an early stage
• encouraging ADR
• fixing timetables

Question 22

Lord Woolf stated that the civil justice system should…

Answer 22

• be just in the results it delivers
• be fair in the way it treats litigants
• offer appropriate procedures at a reasonable cost
• deal with cases at a reasonable speed
• be understandable by those who use it

Question 23

What were the main proposals by Lord Briggs in 2016 for reform of the Civil Procedure Rules?

Answer 23

• there should be an out-of-hours private mediation service in the County Court
• an online court should be set up

Question 24

What are the two routes of appeal from the County Court?

Answer 24

• District Judge to Circuit Judge (remain in County Court)
  -Circuit Judge to High Court Judge

Question 25

No appeal may be made to the CoA unless the CoA considers that…

Answer 25

a) the appeal would raise an important point of principle or practice, or
b) there is another compelling reason for the CoA to hear it

Question 26

what is ‘leapfrog’?

Answer 26

Appeal direct to the Supreme Court from High Court.

Usually cases of national importance

Question 27

Advantages of using civil courts

Answer 27

1. Impartial Judge
2. Decisions can be enforced through the courts
3. There are appeal routes
4. It is possible to get legal aid