The civil courts

Civil claims

Claims made in the civil courts when an individual or a business believes their rights have been infringed on in some way.

What are the two civil courts

County court and high court

County court

All major towns have a county court

Main areas of jurisdiction are

-all contract and tort claims

All cases for recovery of land

Disputes over equitable matters such as trusts up to value of £350,000

Cases are heard by circuit or district judge.

For defamation cases malicious prosecution or false imprisonment judge sits with a jury of 8.

High court

Based in London and has three divisions

Queens bench division-largest, deals with contract and tort cases where amount claimed is over £100,000 or smaller cases where there is an important point in law. Heard by single judge apart from fraud, libel, slander etc where there is a right to jury. There are specialist courts within the division - commercial court for banking, insurance ect. The admiralty court for shipping and the administrative court supervises lawfulness of conduct of local and national gov also hears appeals from magistrates courts

Chancery division -mainly deals with insolvency, mortgage enforcement, disputes relating to trusts property, copyright + patents, intellectual property matters, contested probate actions. ALS a special companies court which deals with winding up companies. Cases heard by single judge

Family division-where there is a dispute over which countries laws should apply and all international cases concerning family matters under The Hague convention. Heard by single judges. Crimes and court act 2013 created new separate family court deals with most of the cases

Starting a court case

Pre-action protocols

Pre action protocol parties must give each other the right information and if not could be liable for costs if they then make a court claim.

Starting a court case

Which court to use

Court to use will depend on the amount of money being claimed if £100,000 or less must start in the county court.

If less than £10,000 its a small claim and will be dealt with by small claims track

Except for personal injury cases where the claim is £50,000 or less must start in county if £1,000 or less then is a small claim.

If the claim is more than any of these then claimant can choose to start in high or county court

Starting a court case

Issuing a claim

Is using county can issue claim in any of 200 courts, if using high court then can go to one of the 20 district registries or main court in London. They need to fill out claim form -N1 which has too be filed at a court office and a fee will be charged for issuing the claim. Fee depends on how much your claim is for.

Starting a court case

Defending a claim

When defendant receives the claim they can either pay full amount or dispute the claim if they wish to dispute they must send either an acknowledgment of service an N9 or a defence to a court within 14 days of receiving the claim. If d does not do any of these things then claimant can ask the court to make an order that d pays money and costs are claimed.

If claim is defended then will be allocated to a track

The three tracks

1. Small claims track for disputes under £10,000 except for personal injury cases which is under £1,000

2. Fast track-fr straightforward disputes of £10-25,000

3. Multitrack for cases over £25,000 or for complex cases

Small claims

Heard in private or ordinary court . District judges are given special training and take an active role in proceedings asking questions to get info ect

Parties are encouraged to represent themselves and cannot claim the cost of cost of using a lawyer form the other side even if they win the case.

Fats track cases

Court sets sown a strict timetable for pre trial matters. Once set down for hearing aim is for case to be heard in 30 weeks but in practice closer to 50.

Trial heard by circuit judge and takes place in open court with a more formal procedure

Hearing is limited to one day an no. Experts allowed is restricted

Multitrack cases

Each case is tried by a judge who is expected the case the whole way through this includes

Identifying issues at an early stage

Encouraging the parties to use adr

Dealing with any procedural steps without the need for parties to attend court

Fixing timetable for which the different stages must be completed

Case mangagement is aimed at keeping costs low

What did Lord Woolf state that a civil justice system should do

Be just in the results it delivers

Be fair in the way it litigates

Offer appropriate procedures at a reasonable cost

Deal with cases at a reasonable speed

Be understandable for those who use it.

Lord Woolf brought in the three track system, gave judges more responsibility simplified docs and procedures and made single set of rules for governing procedures of both county and high court.

Effect of woolfs reforms

More cooperation between parties lawyers

Improvements in delays between issuing claims and hearings

Improvement in no. Cases that settle as he increased use of adr

Further reforms

Lord Briggs’s in 2016 out forward two proposals

1. There should e an out of hours private mediation service in the county court

2. An online court should be set up for claims of up to £25,000 he thinks it would give litigants access to justice without disproportionate cost of lawyers

   Stage 1: a largely automated, interactive online process for the identification of the issues and the provision of documentary evidence

   Stage 2: conciliation and case mangagement carried out by case managers

   Stage 3: resolution judge if case not already solved. Court would use only docs on screen, and then meetings

Appeals from county court

If case heard by district judge then the appeal is sent to a circuit judge at the same county court

If case heard by circuit judge then the appeal id to a high court judge

Second appeals -to the court of appeal civil division but only allowed in exceptional cases set out y s55 of the access to justice act 1999 which states that no appeal may be made to the court of appeal unless

A) the appeal would raise an important point of principle or practice

B) there is some other compelling reason

Appeals from high court

Usually goes to court of appeal but in rare cases can go straight to Supreme Court since 2015 must raise issues of national importance for it to leapfrog

Advantages of using the courts

1. The process is fair judge is impartial

2. Trail is conducted by a legal expert

3. Enforcement on courts decision is easier as can be enforced through the courts

4. There is an appeal process with specific routes

5. May be possible to get legal aid

Legal aid

Gov help in funding a case

Disadvantages of using the courts

1. Costcost of taking to court is often more than amount claimed

2. Delay

3. Complicated process-set out by civil procedure rules

4. Uncertainty no guarantee of winning