Explain The Hierarchy Of The Court System

Assignment 1- Hierarchy of the court system
The hierarchy of Civil Courts include both First Instance courts (the first time the case is heard) and Appeal courts (any court of law that has the power for appeals from courts of first instance). The First Instance courts include the Tribunals, the Magistrates Court and the County court. Whereas the Appeal courts include the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court, and the Court of Justice of the EU. However two levels of the hierarchy appear in both the First Instance and Appeal Courts. These include the Divisional Courts and the High court. Each stage of the hierarchy have different jurisdictions and functions. The Tribunals (Civil Courts)
The Tribunals cover minor civil cases “as they were set
It was created to deal with minor civil disputes, it hears all tracks adding up around 2 million cases a year. There are three types of tracks that are used, the first being small claims track which must be under £10,000 and under £1000 for personal injury. In this track people are encouraged to represent themselves in order to keep costs down particularly as costs of the lawyer cannot be recovered by the winner from the losing party. This track is always heard in the County Court. The fast track deals with claims with a financial value of no more than £25,000. It allows the court to set down a strict timetable for pre-trial matters to stop time-wasting and to prevent running up unnecessary costs. The aim of the fast track is that once a case is set down for hearing it should be heard within 30 weeks. Similarly to the small claims track the case is heard by a circuit judge or district judge and takes place in the County court. Any case that is not allocated to these two tracks is heard in the multi-track. However these cases are either heard in the County or the High court (when claims are over £50,000). Just like the fast track the cases are heard by a circuit judge who can set up timetables to speed up the case. The judge is also able to ask parties to try an alternative method of dispute resolution in order to help the case and not waste
Reasons that the conviction could be considered unsafe could be due to; misdirection of law or facts, failure to refer to a defence, inappropriate comments made by the judge and judge irregularity. Permission is also needed for a case form the criminal division to be heard in this court.
Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC)
The CCRC is an independent body set up in 1997, is was set up by the Criminal Appeals Act. It’s responsible for bringing cases of suspected miscarriages of justice before the courts. There are different ways that cases can be brought to the attention of the CCRC. Firstly defendants or their families could have referred a case or the Court of Appeal can. However if they feel it is necessary the CCRC can do their own research into a case. If the CCRC has sufficient grounds, it will refer a case to either the Court of Appeal or the Crown Court. This referral can result in a conviction being quashed.
The Supreme Court (Criminal