#17266 - The Civil Justice System - GDL English Legal System

The civil justice system

• Civil courts

  • There are two main civil courts which hear civil cases at first instance.

    • These are the County Courts and the High Court.

• The civil justice system before April 1999

  • Before the implementation of the Woolf reforms, there were two separate sets of civil procedure rules for the County Courts and the High Court and Court of Appeal.

  • The system was heavily criticised for being too expensive and slow.

• The civil trial process the civil justice system after April 1999

  • In April 1999 new Civil Procedure Rules and accompanying Practice Directions came into force.

  • The new rules introduce the main recommendations of Lord Woolf in his final report, Access to Justice.

    • The reforms aim to eliminate unnecessary cost, delay and complexity in the civil justice system.

    • The ultimate goal is to change fundamentally the litigation culture.

  • Thus, the first rule of the new Civil Procedure Rules lays down an overriding objective which is to underpin the whole system.

    • This overriding objective is that the rules should enable the courts to deal with cases justly.

  • The emphasis of the new rules is on avoiding litigation through pre-trial settlements.

• Civil procedure rules

  • For non-personal injury actions, a claim may be started in the High Court, where the claimant expects to recover more than 25,000.

  • For personal injury actions a claim can only be started in the High Court where the claimant expects to recover at least 50,000.

• Pre-action protocols

  • To push the parties into behaving reasonably during the pre-trial stage, pre-action protocols have been developed.

  • These lay down a code of conduct for this stage of proceedings.

• Alternative dispute resolution

  • At various stages in a dispute’s history, the court will actively promote settlement by alternative dispute resolution (ADR).

• Case management

  • Case management has been introduced, whereby the court plays an active role in managing the litigation.

  • To determine the level and form of case management, cases have been divided into three types:

    • Small claims track;

    • Fast track; and Multi-track.

• Costs: Lord Jackson’s reforms

  • Reforms have been introduced, following Lord Jackson’s recommendations, to try and reduce the cost of civil litigation.

• Criticism of the civil justice system

  • The 1999 reforms were generally well received, though...