Civil Courts
- Created by: Riles
- Created on: 10-09-20 19:04
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- Chapter 3 - Civil Courts
- Civil Cases
- Civil claims are between individuals, companies and/or government departments
- e.g. negligence
- Judicial review challenges the lawfulness of how a decision was made
- Defendant issues proceedings by giving court description of claim on form and fee. Claim is then sent to defendant for response
- Civil claims are between individuals, companies and/or government departments
- Civil Courts
- Jurisdiction is the official power to make legal decisions and judgements
- Courts of first instance
- County Courts
- Hears the majority of civil cases
- Various tracks allocated depending on value of case
- High Courts
- First instance for trials in specific areas of law
- Appeal court for county and magistrates' cases
- Queen's Bench Division is the biggest and deals with cases over £100,000 e.g. slander. Also carries out judicial review
- Chancery Division - Single judge hears cases such as insolvency and intellectual property
- Family Division - When there is a dispute about which country's laws apply, Hague Convention
- County Courts
- Pre-trial procedures
- Pre-action protocol is a list of things to do by each party involved
- Parties must try to undergo ADR
- County < Personal injury £50,000 < County or High
- County < Claim £100,000 < County or High
- Issuing a claim
- Using one of the 200 county courts or 20 district registries, the claimant must fill out form N1 and pay a fee
- Defending a claim
- The defendant may admit and pay the full amount, or has 14 days to send a defence to the court. Once defended a track will be allocated
- The three tracks
- Small Claims
- General claims under £10K and PI claims under £1K. Heard in private by a district judge, with parties being encouraged to represent themselves
- Fast track cases
- Straight forward disputes up to £25K. Heard in open court by circuit judge within 30-50 weeks. Trial limited to 1 day and 1 expert witness.
- Multi-track cases
- More complex cases over £25K. Each case heard by a judge who manages it including ADR, dealing with procedural steps and court timetabling to reduce costs
- Small Claims
- Evaluation
- Advantage
- Fair process - everyone treated alike
- Legal experts conduct trials
- Legal Aid
- Appeal process
- Decision enforceable by courts
- Disadvantage
- Cost
- Delay - up to 1 year for larger claims
- Uncertainty - no garuntee of winning
- Complicated process due to compulsory steps e.g. pre-action protocols
- Advantage
- Appeals
- Appeals from the county court
- If the case was heard by a district judge then the appeal is to a circuit judge in the same county court. If the case was heard by a circuit judge then the appeal is to a high court judge
- Second appeals to the COA are granted under exceptional circumstance
- S.55 Access to Justice Act 1955
- Appeals from the high court
- Usually go to the Court of Appeal but it is possible to 'leapfrog' to the supreme court in rare cases
- Appeals from the county court
- Civil Cases
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