Interesting topics:
Photography in court — in Britain, court sketches only; must be done from memory outside of court. Ken Clarke (sp?) said there may be some changes in terms of what’s allowed in the future.
Rio Ferdindand v. Mirror Group — Look at the judgement, Judicial Communications Office.
Sign up for: Adjudications from the PCC Monthly Bulletin, OFCOM; inforrm
Two branches of law
Criminal Law
- Controls behaviour
- R. v Smith
- Legal aid
- Trial: Magistrates Court (summary courts), then Crown Court (indictable offenses). (Some cases are either way)
- Either a magistrate or a judge/jury decides outcome
Civil Law
- Resolves disputes
- Brown v. Jones
- Privately funded (Ability to take cases where individuals can’t pay but may win — conditional fees — with uplift fees due to extra risk.)
- Trial: County Court / High Court (If >£50,000 for personal complaints, >£15,000 for other disputes)
- Vast majority of cases decided by a judge
Appeals
- If a matter of law, an appeal from the magistrates court goes to High Court. If a matter of fact, goes to Crown Court, then Appeals Court.
- Court of Appeals has two divisions, one each for civil and criminal
A workflow for cases:
- Royal Courts of Justice, Fleet St., then:
- Supreme Court, Parliament Square, then:
- Marylebone Road Magistrates, then:
- Old Bailey criminal court, then back to Royal Courts of Justice.
The Courts System hierarchy
- Supreme Court
- Supreme Court Justices; head: Lord Phillips
- Court of Appeal (Civil division head: Master of the Rolls — Baron Neuberger; Criminal division head: Lord Judge)
- Crown Court (Criminal; Smalls Claims Court is a subdivision) or High Court (Civil; Family, Queens Bench and Chancery are subdivisions)
- Magistrates Court/Youth Court (Criminial) or Count Court (Civil)
High Court
- Family division
- Queens Bench division
- Chancery Division
Personnel of the law
- Judges — Supreme Court Justice, Lord Justice of Appeal, High court Judge, Circuit judge, District Judge, Recorder, Magistrates
- Lord Chancellor (Head of the Ministry of Justice — Ken Clarke QC), Lord Chief Justice (, Master of the Rolls
- Law officers: Attorney General, Director of Public Prosecutions, Solicitor General (Deputy Attorney General)
- Barristers/Solicitors
*Barrister: More generalized, but many take specialized training
*Solicitors: specialized Solicitor
- In-house lawyers
- Juries (12 members)
- Crown Prosecution Service (Prosecution within the courts)
- Ministry of Justice
-
Police
- IPCC
- ACPO
- Police Federation