Civil courts and appeals

Civil courts and appeals

1. What is civil law?

   • Personal injury/family law/monetary claims.
   • Parties encouraged to settle disputes outside of court (ADR) but not always possible.. If not possible then the claim goes through the civil courts.
     • Access to Justice Report 1996
     • Rule 1.4(2)(2) CPR's.
     • Dunnet 2002
   • Currenct civil justice system was reformed by L Woolf in 1999
     • Civil Procedure Rules 1999

2. Which courts are the civil courts?

   • County
     • 220 courts.
     • deals with land, contract, tort, inheritance.
     • Hears all tracks
     • open court
     • Circuit or District judge
   • High
     • London and 26 other locations.
     • 3 divisions
       • Family
       • Chancery
       • QBD
   • Jurisdiction
     • each court has jurisdiction, in civil law this tends to be financial.
     • County
       • All less than £25k
     • High court
       • all deformation and £25k+

3. How to make a claim

   • Write to other person.
   • Other person has time to respond directly to you.
   • If no response file form N1 in court.
   • Other person can respond agreeing/denying.
   • Questionnaire.
   • ADR
   • Court

4. Track system

   • Small claims
     • £10k or less
       • Civil Procedure Rules 2013 s.1
     • County court
     • £1k or less for P1
     • 1973 = £75, cheap, financially viable, informal.
   • Fast track
     • £10-£25k/county court/DJ/1 day.
     • If £15k or less but complex may go to M-T.
   • Multi-track
     • £25k+
     • 25-50 C court
     • 50+ H court

5. Lord Woolf

   • 1996 AJR
     • should be -just - reasonable -fair -cost -speedy -understandable -resourced -effective - organised -certain
     • Was -unequal -expensive -slow -complex -uncertain
   • Civil Procedure Rules s.1(3) aims
     • 1 set of rules for all courts
     • Changed language "plantiff" to "claimant".
     • Judges more management powers
     • pre-action protocol
       • questionnaires

6. Civil Appeals

   • Access to Justice Act 1999
     • no automatic right to appeal
       • s.54 - must gain permission
         • "there is real prospect of success or some other compelling reason".
       • s.55 - only get one appeal
   • ECJ
     • If issue concerns EU law then court must make an Article 267 such as Transfern.
   • County
     • DJ to CJ / CJ to HCJ
     • If M-T then always appeal to CoA (regardless of original judge).
   • High
     • Appeal to CoA BUT can leapfrog to SC under s.12-15 AJA1969
       • "point of law of pubic importance"
       • 38 LJA
       • 3,000 appeals