LAW P1 ELS (hierarchy of courts) Flashcards
What is the hierarchy of criminal courts?
(from high to low)
- supreme court
- court of appeal
- high court
- crown court
- magistrates court
What is the magistrates court?
The magistrates court is the lowest court and is staffed by magistrates (who are volunteers)
What offences do the magistrates court deal with?
A magistrates court will often deal with summary offences, which are small offences with a maximum penalty of 6 months, or a fine of £5000
Indivtable offences which are more serious will be given a basic trial before being passed to the crown courts
What is the crown court?
The crown court is the major criminal and civil courts
They will generally have a judge or judges running the trial
A crown court will either hear appeals from magistrates court, sentence criminals from magistrates, or hold trials themselves
They often have a jury
These often take place with significant offences which the magistrates court does not have the powers to handle
What is the high court?
The high court is divided into three divisions: queens bench, chancery, family courts
Most of these deal with civil law only, however a small section of the queens bench (administrative section) can occasionally hear criminal appeals from the lower courts on some matters, but these tend to skip to the court of appeal
Many high court judges will also sit in the crown court.
There is occasionally a jury in serious defamation or police cases, but otherwise it is a rarity
What is the court of appeal?
This is the major appeal court and the judges here go under the title of ‘lord justice’ and there are just 38 of them
Appeals will come from the crown courts in criminal cases and in civil they are from county and high courts
The court of appeal hears appeals from lower courts, this may be because one party feels that the law was unfairly applied or some precedural error occurred
In criminal cases it will be the defence appealing over the verdict or punishment whereas in a civil case either party can technically bring an appeal but it will be the one who feels the most hard done by who will take it forward
What is the supreme court?
The supreme court was until recently called the house of lords
While many of the judges may sit there this once was a court that was overseen by the 12 law lords
Since it has been renamed the supreme court, nothing much has changed, but it is seen as a bit more open now some of the tradition has been shrugged off
The court exists as the final and ultimate court in the UK. Appeals will go no further and the court has authority over all the lower courts in the country
