The Court System Flashcards
What is the primary function of the court system?
The primary function of the court is to administer the law.
- Any law making role is important but secondary.
Explain the The common law ‘adversarial’ system and the comparative system in civil law jurisdictions
The common law ‘adversarial’ system and the comparative system in civil law jurisdictions:
In common law jurisdictions, the role of the judges is to moderate the adversaries in a case and in civil law systems the judges role is to establish the facts of the case and apply provisions of a code.
There’s differences between civil vs common law jurisdictions. England’s a typical common law ‘adversarial’ system, where litigation is driven more by the parties than by the judiciary. So thus the comparative system is the opposite of this. Civil law jurisdiction as opposed to common law jurisdiction.
Explain the distinctions between the process of civil vs criminal litigation
Civil vs Criminal litigation:
The two types of law which are dealt with by court systems, for the most part, operating independently from each other. These courts have different expertise and procedures.
The civil system concludes largely self-contained courts specialising in family and administrative law. The principal objective of criminal courts is to decide guilt or innocence according to the criminal law and then to sanction.
In contrast the principle objectives of the civil courts are to decide disputes between members of society, or between the state and individuals and to grant an appropriate remedy (usually compensation to the victim)
Explain the distinction between trial vs appellant courts
Trial vs appellate courts:
Another distinction is between a trial (or ‘first instance’) and an appeal ( or ‘appellant’) court.
When litigants disagree with a decision of a court they may try to appeal it to a higher court if they have a strong enough argument and the resources to do so.
The Litigant is called the ‘appellant’ (whether they are the claimant, prosecution or defendant) and the party seeking to prevent the success of this appeal is called the ‘respondent’.
Trial courts contrast with the courts of ‘appeal’ of which the court of appeal is only one. In most systems with trial courts there are one or two levels of appeal court i.e. the Court of Appeal of England & Wales and the UK Supreme Court.
So the generic appeal system is;
Trial court»_space;»» Appellate court»_space;»»> Supreme Court.
Explain the civil appeals system
In the civil division a case heard in the County court can be appealed to the High Court if leave is granted and then it could appeal to the Court of appeal and then the supreme court.
In the civil division you have the County Court, Family Court and High court which are all trial courts and then you have The High court, Court of appeal and Supreme court which are all Appeal courts and superior courts.
Appeals at the court of appeal;
The civil division of the Court of Appeal is exclusively an appeal court. It also considers appeals from employment appeals tribunal. County court cases are rarely appealed beyond the high court to the Court of appeal except in exceptional circumstances can an appeal be made straight from the country court to the court of appeal
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom:
Very few civil cases go on to the supreme court which is the ultimate court of appeal for any civil or criminal matters outside scottland. It only deals with cases of real public importance.
Permission to appeal is required administered by the Supreme court. The supreme court can hear appeals directly from the high court under the ‘leapfrog procedure’ which is reserved for masters certified by the supreme court to be of general public importance. There are normally ew of these appeals from the High court to the court of appeal each year.
Majority of appeals always conform to the ‘ladder’ of court systems and appeals which bypass courts and appeal systems are rare.
State the 3 types of Civil Courts
There are 3 types of Civil Courts;
- County Court
- High Court
- Supreme Court
The lowest Civil court is called the County Court which like magistrates courts are spread across England and wales. However sometimes there are more serious cases in the civil court which may be heard in the High Court.
Cases in a county court are heard by a district judge or a circuit judge both of which are legally qualified and work on their own there is no jury.
Explain the 3 categories that the High Court is split into
The High court is split into 3 categories covering different areas of law. These are known as the;
- Family Division (surrounding divorce, children + death)
- Chancery Division (Tax, bankruptcy, patents, trusts involving companies)
- Queens Bench Division (contractual disputes, commercial matters, personal injury etc)
Civil cases generally must follow a certain procedure and that procedure depends on the track to which the case is allocated;
Claims under 10K are usually allocated to the small claims track and are heard reasonably quick. Fast track claims are generally between 10-25K and multi track claims are for the larger much more complex claims and hearings may not come to court for a year or two.
There are 3 types of track cases in the civil courts;
- Small claims track
- Fast track claims
- Multi-track claims
And as they go down they go up in seriousness/complexity and the time to resolve them in the high civil court goes up.
Explain the superior vs inferior civil courts
Superior courts:
- Supreme Court
- Court of Appeal
- High Court
- Crown Court
Inferior courts:
- Family Court
- County Court
- Magistrates Court.
State the 3 types of Criminal courts
There are 3 types of Criminal Courts;
- Magistrates Court
- Crown Court
- Supreme Court
Explain the key types of criminal offences and what court can sentence which
A key factor in the forum of the trial is the severity of the offence which are categorised as;
- Summary only offences i.e. driving without insurance, common assault (dealt with at magistrates court)
- Indictable only offences i.e. including murder and robbery. These are serious offences which can only be tried at Crown Court as only the crown court has power to sentence accordingly.
- Either way offences include theft and fraud but which are offences which are capable of being more or less serious depending on facts of the case. They dealt with either at Magistrates or Crown courts.
- For either way offences there’s an allocation hearing at a Magistrates court where the magistrates will decide to retain jurisdiction or commit the trial to the Crown court.
Magistrates power to sentence is restricted to 6 months custodial sentence. So anything predicted to be above this must be committed to the Crown court
Explain the Criminal appeals system if a case has been appealed from the Magistrates court
Criminal appeals from the Magistrates;
Magistrates > Crown Court > High Court > Supreme Court
OR
Magistrates > High Court > Supreme Court
Appeals from the magistrates to the Crown court can be done one of two ways however it has to be done by the defendant themselves;
(1) appeal against conviction itself (on points of law or fact) only if defendant pleaded not guilty
(2) appeal against a sentence
Appeal from Magistrates to High Court can be done either by the prosecution or the defendant by way of case stated however this appeal must be based on a point of law.
For an appeal to be taken to the Supreme Court the High Court must certify the point of law is of general public importance and either the High Court or Supreme Court has to grant leave to appeal and either side may appeal on point of law
Explain the Criminal appeals system if a case has been appealed from the Crown Court
Criminal appeal from the Crown Court;
A defendant can appeal from the Crown court to the Court of Appeal, only with leave and this appeal must be against conviction or sentence and can be on a point of either law or fact.
After acquittal in crown court, the Attorney general may refer a point of law for clarification to the court of appeal but this does not affect the acquittal.
Where a sentence is seen to be unduly lenient he may refer the case to the court of appeal where the sentence could be replaced with a more appropriate one.
For a case to move from the court of appeal to the supreme court the appeal must be on point of law and the court of appeal must certify the point of law is of general public importance and the court of appeal or supreme court have to grant leave.
Define a ‘point of law’ vs a ‘point of fact’ in a criminal appeal
A point of law: a question of law, also known as a point of law, is a question that must be answered by applying relevant legal principles to the interpretation of the law.
A point of fact: a question of fact, which must be answered by reference to facts and evidence as well as inferences arising from those facts.
Define ‘leave’ in the context of appeals
Leave: permission from a court to appeal to a superior court
Explain some of the key courts which have an impact or persuasion over the English court systems
he UK has many intentional commitments of different types and thus some give courts a degree of jurisdiction within the UK & thus the English Legal system.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) Strasbourg case law:
The European Court of Human Rights is set up under an international treaty; the ECHR or the European Convention of Human Rights. These rights can be enforced in our national courts (Under the Human Rights act 1998. The convention gives a citizen of a signatory state the right to appeal to the court of human rights for an order for compensation on grounds that there’s been a breach of the state of the convention either directly or indirectly; however its a procedure that’s both expensive and lengthy.
The UK government usually heeds judgments from the European Court of Human rights attentively. However, it’s key to note that ultimately the enforceability of the court is a matter of the national government opting in and it is not directly binding in domestic law.
The International Criminal court:
- The ICC has not yet exercised authority within the U, but in theory holds the right to do so.
The Judicial Committee of Privy Council:
- The Judicial committee of privy council is a court which largely overlaps with the UK’s supreme Court. It hears appeals from 27 commonwealth countries, UK overseas territories and crown dependencies.
- The decisions of the privy council are nor binding to English courts nor does it have the appellate capacity within the English legal system (except in very rare circumstances). Despite not benign binding though privy council decisions are highly persuasive in English case law.
