Civil courts and other forms of dispute resolution

What are the civil courts?

The civil courts deal with non-criminal issues focusing on disputes between individuals and businesses including disagreements over employment, contract, and tort law. The two main courts of first instance are the high court and county court.

Jurisdiction of the county court

Deals with contract disputes and tort, compensation claims for injuries to the claimants, matter arising under the Equality act 2010, cases between £500 and £15,000

Jurisdiction of the Queen’s bench division of the High Court

Contract cases for example breach of contract, tort cases involving defamation, trespass, negligence, or nuisance, and judicial review actions.

Chancery division of the high court jurisdiction

specialist civil cases including company and patent law, professional negligence cases, competition law cases for example monopolies

Family division of the high court jurisdiction

Family related cases, cases involving children under the Children Act 1989, cases involving the custody and day to day care of minors

The small claims track

Straightforward claims of less than £10,000 or £1000 for personal injury

Fast track

Claims between £10,000 and £25,000

Multi track

Claims between £25,000 and £50,000

High court track

Complex claims over £50,000

Appeals from civil cases

Normally an appeal with progress up the hierarchy if the claimant or defendant is given permission to do so. For example from county up to high court. This can go as far as the CoA to Supreme Court or ECHR but rarely ever does

Employment tribunals

Responsible for hearing employment claims over areas such as unfair dismissal, discrimination, unfair pay deductions. The claimant will file an ET1 form to start and the respondent has 28 days to file an ET3. The tribunal then contacts the employer, if there’s no response it is ruled in favour of the claimant but the employer can dispute it. The tribunal is made up of an employment judge, a representative of an employer’s organisation and a representative of the employee’s organisation.