Applied Law - QCF (Edexcel)

Civil and Criminal Courts

Civil law resolves issues between claimants and defendants that include individuals and businesses, civil law aims to remove any injustices with finances, unlike criminal law civil law focuses on making it fair for both parties. - When these claims are first brought to the court's attention they will first go to a court of first instance, these are when the case is first heard and the first decisions are made, these can also be known as a magistrates court, appeal courts only appeal decisions made in first instance courts but there must be proper ground to do so.

Hierarchy of Civil Courts (smaller to bigger ->)

County Court - small claims (Claims up to £10,000 and personal injuries up to £1000)

(County Court - fast track (Claims up to £25,000 and personal injuries up to £50,000)

County Court - multi-track - any claims not included above)

High Court (Claims up to £100,000 and personal injuries above £50,000)

Court of Appeal

Supreme Court.

As a whole these courts deal with damages, injunctions, special remedies, ASBOs etc...

Small claims courts under the county claim court section are usually local, usually taking around 30 minutes this courts is designed for claims under £10,000, these cases are rarely appealed and easily dealt with so solicitors don't always need to be involved, a district judge will deal with these disputes and issues are usually resolved quickly and fairly. County courts are disputes between a claimant and a defendant that cannot agree, the types of cases dealt with in these cases can include, divorce, discrimination, creditors seeking payment, employer/employee, landlord/tenent and cases that come from a consumer.

Going down the road of Criminal Law - The court of first instance for criminal cases in the Crown Court, these courts provide local jurisdiction for criminal cases, they will hear indictable and triable either way offences, this involves the judge making sure the prosecution and the defence fight a fair trial these cases are usually started off in the magistrates court and are moved to Crown as the magistrates court has realised its a serious offence, these offences can include, GBH (S18 & S20), severe ABH, severe sexual assault, burgulary & robbery - with a weapon, possestion of a weapon, murder, drug dealing, fraud and manslaughter. Crown Courts can give community service orders, force rehabilitation & mental health service residence, unlimited fines, life tariffs and life in prison. Preliminary hearings give the defendant a chance to plead innocent or guilty, sentences will be provided if the defendant is guilty. An example of a case I'd like involves victim Arlene Fraser and defendant Nat Fraser, the defendant was charged with the victims death and found guilty but the defendant appealed the case for a miscarriage of justice, after 25 years in jail the case was appealed and this appeal was successful.

Criminal Appeals can be heard in the Court of Appeal and defendants can only appeal against convictions, sentences, point of law and miscarriages of justice and the protection can appeal if they believe the sentence given to the defendant was too lenient, they can reverse judgements, increase or decrease defendant and move defendants. The Civil Court of appeal hears civil cases rather than criminal cases, and it allows people to appeal when they have grounds to think they didn't get the wrong amount of compensation or have been sued unfairly, in the Thalidomide case, which involved a large number of pregnant women that were given medication for morning sickness - and much later finding out that this caused their children disabilities. The Supreme Court is the highest court in Britain and the highest court of appeal, this court makes decisions on common law, what is allowed as evidence and national rights, the courts hears appeals and concentrates on important cases. The Supreme Court made a decision to decriminalise abortion in Northern Island.

High Courts are senior courts, housed in the royal courts of justice, they can hear appeals from county courts, high courts usually deal with matters between £25,000 and £50,000 but can hear cases at higher prices than this, these cases are heard by high court judges... The divisions of the High Court are split into 3 categories the Queen's Bench, Chancery, and Family, the Queens Bench Division deal with cases which claim over £100,000 and specialises in insurance, banking, shipping and construction, Chancery deals with land mortgages, insolvances, wills and copyright and the Family Division deals with access to custody of children and divorce. The Court of Appeals hears appeals from the County and High Court if the decision is considered not fair, you have 21 days to appeal here, the case can be dismissed or a retrial can be dismissed. The European Court of Justice hears cases on points of EU Law, and ensures that the law is equal in all EU countries, the CCRC is responsible for investigating miscarriages of justice regarding EU Law. In the case Donahue v Stephenson (1932) duty of care was first introduced, this case involves claimant Donahue and defendant Stephenson. Donahue had ginger beer and ice cream in a cafe, the contents of the beer were unforeseeable as it was in a bottle that didn't show the contents, after drinking the beer Donahue poured the rest on her ice cream, and to her surprise a decomposed snail floated out, due to this incident Donahue faced alleged shock and suffered from severe gastro-enteritis, as there was no consumer contract between Donahue and Stephenson so the claimant couldn't claim any kind of compensation and because of this but she took the case further and as a result the neighbourhood principle was created by a judge by the name of Lord Atkin.

There are many magistrates courts around the UK, magistrates courts usually in involve a panel that make a judgement on cases and do not have a jury, if cases are more serious they get transferred to a higher court such as Crown Court, Magistrates Courts are usually in the courts where a case is first introduced, and this court deals with summary offences, most cases happen in a magistrates court and are easily dismissed as the majority of defendants plead guilty - solicitors are mostly used in these courts.

Youth court (also magistrates), a youth court provides anonymity for children from the ages of 10-17 years old, this court deals with cases of young people that include theft or burglary, anti-social behaviour and drug offences - serious offences are tried in crown court, sentencing young people needs to be in their best interest and the public's best interest, these include community sentences, detention & training orders, fostering, prison - but a children's version and absolute discharge (if less serious) an example of a serious offence was committed by 9 year olds Jon Vernables and Robert Thompson who both tortured and killed a child, they were both sentenced for this as children and not adults and that is an exam-ple of a criminal case.

Hierarchy of Criminal Courts (smaller to bigger ->)

Magistrates Court

Crown Court

Court of Appeal

Supreme Court