The Civil Justice System Describe the main Civil Courts and their jurisdiction.

Authors Avatar
The Civil Justice System

A) Describe the main Civil Courts and their jurisdiction.

There are four main civil courts in the English Legal System, which hold civil jurisdiction; the County Court, High Court, Court of Appeal and The House of Lords. There are also smaller civil courts with some jurisdiction such as the magistrate's court and then there is, of course, the European Court of Justice setting precedent for all our courts.

The magistrate's court has a very small amount of civil jurisdiction. They are responsible for granting licences to pubs, betting shops and other outlets. They also have jurisdiction over some domestic matters such as adoption and some other matrimonial matters. The magistrates require some training before undertaking these sorts of cases and uniformity is upheld as appeals are taken to the family division of the High Court. The civil jurisdiction of the magistrate's courts is quite minimal and overlaps with that of the County Court and High Court. They also have responsibility for dealing with civil debts such as money owed for council tax, electricity and other state-charged utilities.

The County Court deals with the widest range of civil matters and these can include anything from contractual problems, to divorce cases and other matters linked to property and children. The most significant difference between the High Court and the County Court is the workload involved. The County Court has a much greater workload and turnover of cases. The county court hears cases up to £50,000, for both personal injury and normal claims, since the recommendations for reforms from Lord Justice Woolf in the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990. These cases are nearly always heard in open court (anyone can attend) and utilise the three track system introduced by Woolf in the Civil Procedure Act 1997 to improve the efficiency of the civil justice system. These are the Small Claims procedure, Fast Track and Multi Track systems.
Join now!


The Small Claims procedure is designed to be relatively cheap, simple and fast. Claims under £5000 (£1000 for personal injury) are heard using the Small Claims procedure and the claimant and defendant are encouraged to represent themselves to lower costs. These claims are heard in ordinary court and Judges are generally encouraged to be more inquisitorial and take a more interventional approach to speed up the process. This simplifies things for both parties too.

The Fast Track is used for cases where the claim is for between £5000 and £15000 (£1000-£15000 for Personal Injury) and where the ...

This is a preview of the whole essay