The Civil Justice System Flashcards
What is the Civil Justice System?
- deals with cases that are everything but criminal law
- the prosecution is individuals or companies
- includes family law which has its own court
The Structure of the Civil Court
- The County Court (& Family Court)
–> majority are here - High Court
–> different divisions in high court - Court of Appeal
–> only if you appeal a case - Supreme Court
–> only if you appeal a case
Civil Justice and the Rule of Law
The Rule of Law (Lord Binham)
- 8 Rules that seek to balance law and rights
#6 means must be provided for resolving, without prohibitive cost or inordinate delay, bona fide civil disputes which the parties themselves are unable to resolve
#7 adjudicative procedures provided by the state should be fair
what are some criticisms of the civil justice system?
- procedures are too complex
- court system is too slow
- difficult to enforce court decisions
- too expensive
The Woolf Review and Reforms
- recomennded a complete overhall of the civil justice system
- encouraged ADR
- greater case management powers
The Overriding Objective
- to ensure the court deals with cases justly and at a proportionate cost
1. these rules are procedural codes with the overriding objective of enabling the court to deal with cases justly and at a proportionate cost
2. dealing with a case justly and at proportionate cost includes, so far as is practicable
What is ADR? Give Examples.
Alternative Dispute Resolution which resolves disputes without going to court:
Mediation
- neutral person helping to reach an agreement between 2 parties
Arbitration
- going to an independent third party and go to them to make a decision about your dispute and agree to do whatever they say
Negotiation
- you and another party trying to reach an agreement
Progress of a Civil Case
- Pre-action stage
- formal letter - Commencement
- if no promise (claim form) - defendant
- defending the claim - allocation
- court will allocate depending on nature of case - Trial
- may be settled in advanced - Judgement
- Damages and costs
- Enforcement
There are now four tracks in the civil justice system. What are they?
Court Management
- the Small Claims Track
- The Fast Track
- The Intermediate Track
- The Multi Track
Court Costs
- after judgement the judge deals with costs of the case
- the unsuccessful party will pay the successful party’s costs but the judge has wide discretion to depart from that rule
Online Court
Richard Susskind said there was a problem with cases being held in backlog
- if everyone submitted their stuff online then it would be quicker
- court is a service not a place
- nect generation is AI judging..
Access to civil justice - where are we now
- underfunding the justice system has gone down
- cuts of legal aid - more people are now representing themselves and more injustice cause people don’t know how to claim their right
- the expense of pursuing a civil case regional inequalities
