Law - Courts

This blog will give an overview of the court system in England and the rest of the UK, and about the courts themselves.

There are six types of courts that are used in the UK, and it is important to remember the difference between civil and criminal and whether certain courts deal with criminal or civil trials. The image below perfectly illustrates the courts in the UK, and how they are separated between civil and criminal.

The Criminal courts are the Magistrates courts, Crown court, Court of Appeal and the House of Lords, also known as the Supreme Court. It is valuable to remember that court of appeal is part of the criminal division through appeals that come from the Crown court. Criminal cases deal with cases of murder, theft, fraud etc where the cases must be heard in front of the state.Magistrates courts usually are the court used for summary offences, youth courts and even family proceeding courts. The Crown court, which is higher than the Magistrates courts in the hierarchy deals with cases which require sentences as well as appeals

from the magistrates and trials for arrestable offences.

The Civil Division includes tribunals which hears appeals from decisions on immigration, tax, pensions and divorces. It is solely a court based on solving problems and disputes between groups of people, so employment or land ownership will be great examples.

There are the County courts which serves to deal with the most of civil lawsuit subject to the claim's nature.

The next court up in the civil division is the High court where the current Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales is Lord Judge. Appeals from the High courts usually jump to the Court of appeals, and then onto the Supreme Court. The High court has three divisions of its own, split into the: Queen's Bench Division; Family Division and the Chancery Division which deal with contract laws, land and business law, and family matters and divorce respectively plus many others.

The courts in England and Wales are different than Scotland, and this is because Scotland has different laws. Scotland is allowed to vote on its laws whereas England and Wales have no say which can make it very one sided.

The Supreme Court is the only court which covers all countries in the United Kingdom, from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.