Civil Courts

Jurisdiction of County Court

• Hears majority of civil cases

• Types of case include:

  • Businesses trying to recover money they are owed,

  • Individuals seeking compansation for injuries

  • Landowners seeking orders that prevent trespass

Jurisdiction of High Court

• Containes three divisions:

  • Chancery Division - Deals with tax, property, wills and probate, and bankruptcy cases

  • King’s Bench Division - Deals with majority of work. Deals with tort and contract cases not suitable for County Court.

  • Family Division - Hears cases with dispute on which country’s laws applie and disputes under Hague Convention. Also deals complex and important cases regarding adoption, divorce, wills and child custody

Process for Civil Actrion from dispute to trial / Settlement

1. Where possible, settle the disput with party via Negotiation (quicker, cheaper and less pressurised)

2. Pre-action protocols - Letter / evidence of attempting to resolve prior to taking court action.

3. Complete Claim form (N1 and submit to court), C to pay relevant court fee (according to value of the claim)

4. D - 14 days to respond, can admit to claim (and choose to settle), can do nothing (judgment made in default) and defend / part defend (to exchange evidence and prepare for court)

5. Allocation to Track

6. Case management / Pre-trial matters

7. Trial, Decision / award.

Pre-action Protocols

• Rules about what the parties must do even before Court proceedings are issued

• Currently 16 separate pre-action protocols and the one that applied depends on the type of claim

E.g. Personal injury Pre-action Protocol:

1. Letter of claim - setting out why D is at fault, nature of injury etc

2. D has 3 months to investigate and admit liability or explain to C why liability is denied

3. Parties agree an expert witnes if required

   (If either party does not comply, they can be penalised when it comes to the issue of paying the costs at conclusion of claim)

Issuing a Claim

• If Dispute cannot be settled, C can issue proceeding by completing Form N1 (or claiming online if it is a case of being owed money up to £100,000.

• Also must pay a fee which ranges between £25 for low value claim to £10,000 for a claim for more than £200,000

• Courts will then allocate the claim to one of four tracks.

• A track is the name for the different sets of rules that are applied to different types and values of claim.

Allocation to SMALL claims Track

Value of claim = Claims under £10,000 or under £1,000 for personal injury cases.

Court - County Court

Judge - District Judge

Approach:

• Winning party generally cannot recover legal fees

• So lawyers are not usually involved and Litigants are in person. - Otherwise C could not actually win much money

• Judge has an inquisitorial approach - Will assist the parties in determining the issues as well as deciding the outcome

Allocation to FAST Track

Value of Claim = £10,000 - £25,000 but personal injury cases between £1,000 - £25,000

Court - County Court

Judge - Circuit Judge

Approach:

• 30-week timetable to trial

• Only one joint expert allowed

• Trial limited to to one day

• Fixed Recoverable Costs

Allocation to INTERMEDIATE Track

Value of claims - Claims between £25,000 - £100,00

Court -

Up to £50,000 = County Court

Over £50,000 = High Court

Judge -

Up to £50,000 = Circut judge,

Over £50,000 = Puisne Judge

Approach:

• Simplified Procedure

• Fixed recoverable costs

• Trial limited to two days

• Two experts per party

Allocation to MULTI Track

Value of claims - Claims over £100,00; more complex claims

Court - High Court

Judge - Puisne Judge

Approach:

• Judge sets timetable to trial

• No limit on experts

Civil Appeals

• Appeals are heard by the next level judge

• Second appeals go straight to Court of appeal (in exceptional circumstances)

• Appeals from Multi-track go straight to Court of Appeal (Civil Division) and can go to do SC on a point of law of general public importance as long as either court gives permission.

• If SC gives permission, then appeal can ‘leap frog’ over the Court of Appeal.

Civil Courts Advantages

1. Civil court system is a fair process. Like cases are treated alike, and heard by an impartial judge

• Parties can also appeal if they are not happy with the judge’s decision

• Means that civil courts are procedurally just

  2. Decisions of the court are binding in law - If a part does not comply, the court’s decision can be enforced by starting enforcement proceeding - Not the case for most forms of ADR

• Binding nature of court proceedings encourages the parties to negotiate seriously and look to settle cases where possible

3. Parties have the right to appeal against the decision of the court

   • This is an advantage compared to negotiation, mediation or conciliation where no appeal is available.

   • However, if party that appeals is unsuccessful, they are bound to comply with court’s decision

Civil Courts Disadvantages

1. Often Costs of preceding to trial are far greater than the amount being claimed

   • High Court cases can run in to many thousands of pounds in costs

   • However, rule that loser must pay the winner’s costs can be argued to encourage the early settlement disputes

2. Court proceedings can be very slow, with many procedural steps to go through before issues are resolved

3. Taking a case to court carries significant uncertainty with it

   • No guarantee of winning at trial, no matter how strong a case may look on paper

   • The fact that loser pays winner’s costs makes it difficult to know in advance the likely cost of a case