1. Civil Law:
- Magistrates’ Courts (the lowest one; it deals with very simple cases like for ex ample: adoptions, divorces, deaths, not financial cases):
People who work there are called lay magistrates – Justice of Peace who are not qualified,
- County Courts (it deals with some cases connected with wills, administration of estates, bankruptcy, discriminations, divorces):
People who work there are called circuit judges. They have studied law for a long time so they are qualified,
- The High Court of Justice -> it has three branches:
Chancery Division (it deals with company laws, wills, administration of estates, bankruptcy),
Queen’s Bench Division (it deals with maritime law – ships and commercial law),
Family Division (cases connected with individual people: adoptions, divorces),
People/judges who work there are called Mr. Justice and they are legally qualified lawyers who cannot be dismissed,
- The Court of Appeal (it is civil division -> it is court where people can appeal):
People/judges who work there are called Mr. Justice and they cannot be dismissed,
- The Supreme Court (it is the last chance of appeal but it can happen very rarely to appeal there; mainly when the cases are connected with very important people):
People/judges who work there are called Justice and they cannot be dismissed.
2. Responsibility for the administration of justice:
- Lord Chancellor – he is responsible for checking the documents about the law, he appoints judges/lawyers (in the past he was more important than now),
- Lord Chief Justice – head of judiciary system, head of the Supreme Court, the most important judge in the Court of Appeal,
- Home Secretary – he is responsible for police forces, criminal things, prisons,
- Prime Minister – he advises the Queen who should be appointed (whose judges to become for example Mr. Justice),
- The Attorney General
- The Solicitor General
3. Judges:
lay magistrates – no legal training,
circuit judges, high court judges are appointed from Barristers by Lord Chancellor,
they can’t be engaged with politics,
only judges of interior courts can be removed.
4. Legal profession:
- BARRISTER – only Barrister can become judge; he should study for 4 years in Inn of Court, pass special exam known as Bar Exam, then work in Chamber of a Barrister to gain experience because after graduating, they are not enough qualified.
5. SOLICITOR – to become solicitor, he should study the law and pass the exam called Law Society; he prepares documents for example wills; he also can speak in court (but only in the lowest ones) so he can represent people there; he hires Barrister if somebody must go to the higher court.