House of Lords

The house of lords is the final court of appeal in matters civil and criminal from all courts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland; and in matters civil from courts in Scotland. There is a maximum of 12 lords of appeal in each case which must consist of at least two judges from Scotland and one from Northern Ireland. As well as the lords of appeal other judges that can take part in the work of the house are:

Lord Chancellor
Ex Lord Chancellors
The master of the rolls
Peers (although they don’t take part in the hearing of appeals)

But they must have high judicial office

Court of appeal

The court of appeal came into existence by the implementation of the judicature acts 1873-75 together with the high court of justice to form the supreme court of judicature. At first it was intended that the court of appeal should be the final appeal court but a change in plan lead to the appellate jurisdiction act 1876, under which the house of lords was appointed as the supreme appeal court. The special group of judges called lord justices of appeal were appointed to form the court of appeal in civil cases. The present number is 32 across two divisions. The jurisdiction of this court includes appeals from three divisions

Divisional courts from the county court
From the employment appeal tribunal
From the lands tribunal and transport tribunals

Three lords usually sit to form the court but in some more important cases this will be increased to five. The courts hear more than one case a day averaging on 900 full appeals and 600 interlocutory appeals a year.

County courts

There are currently 260 county courts in England and Wales each consisting of at least one circuit judge and one district judge. It is important to remember that county courts do ...

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Divisional courts from the county court
From the employment appeal tribunal
From the lands tribunal and transport tribunals

County courts

There are currently 260 county courts in England and Wales each consisting of at least one circuit judge and one district judge. It is important to remember that county courts do not, follow county boundaries their name is historical. Since there establishment in 1846, county courts have assisted us in providing a nationwide system of for the trial of civil cases where a comparatively small amount of money is involved.

High court of justice

The high court of justice consists of five divisions:

The queens bench
Chancery
Probate
Divorce and admiralty
Exchequer and common pleas

The last two divisions were merged in 1880 and the remaining three remained unaltered until 1970 when the functions of the probate, divorce and admiralty division where redistributed to form the family division. There are 95 judges appointed to the three divisions according to pressure work

Magistrate’s court

The magistrates court administer the civil, family and criminal courts in England and Wales. This covers Crown, county and magistrates' courts.The organisation has 7 regions:

North West
North East
Midlands
Wales & Cheshire
South East
South West
London

Crown court

The Crown Court deals with all indictable cases, which are serious offences tribal before a judge and jury, and these include murder, rape, serious assault, kidnapping, conspiracy, fraud, armed robbery, and Official Secrets Act offences. These offences cannot be tried at the .

The most famous Crown Court is 'The Old Bailey' otherwise known as the Central Criminal Court; however, the Old Bailey is just one of more than 90 Crown Court centers throughout England and Wales. These centers are divided into six "cir The Crown Court is part of the Supreme Court of Judicature. It is presided over by a professional judge. If the case is serious, the judge is likely to be a judge, who would normally be attached to the Queen's Bench Division. Otherwise the judge will be a circuit judge or a recorder - a part-time circuit judge.

The Crown Court is also the appeal court against convictions and sentences by magistrates. When appealing against conviction, the Crown Court judge re-hears all the evidence that witnesses have already given in the lower court, but there is no jury. For all appeals, the judge sits with between two and four lay magistrates.