Court Structures of England and Wales and Alternative Dispute Resolution Systems

This essay discusses the court structures in England and Wales, including the different courts and divisions for handling various types of cases. It also explores the alternative dispute resolution systems in the UK, focusing on arbitration and mediation as effective methods for resolving disputes. The importance of ADR in saving time and costs compared to legal proceedings is highlighted.

Business Law

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Court structures of England and Wales.......................................................................................3
Alternative Dispute Resolution systems (ADRs)........................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Court can be defined as an institute with legal authority through which it can adjudicate
disputes between parties that are of legal nature and also carry out administration of justice in
civil, criminal and administrative matters. This essay aims at discussing structure of court in
England and Wales and will also discuss about Alternative Dispute Resolution systems in UK.
MAIN BODY
Court structures of England and Wales
In court system in England and Wales different courts deal with different types of cases.
This means that criminal cases are started in magistrate’ court and some cases that are more
serious in nature are sent to Crown Court. Appeal from Crown Court is sent to High Court and
potentially to Court of Appeal or Supreme Court.
Civil cases are sometimes dealt by magistrate but might go to a country court. Followed
by this appeals are sent to High Court and then to Court of Appeal (Hodges, 2019). These cases
are divided in different divisions of courts.

Figure 1 Courts Structure Chart
Above figure outlines structure of court in England and Wales. In this structure
magistrate court is starting of structure where cases are files. Cases that are filed in this court are
criminal cases and some civil matters are also filed in this court. This court is operated by
magistrate and district judges (Courts structure chart, 2021). Other than this, trial of civil cases is
undertaken in Country Court and they are functioned by Circuit Judges, Recorders, District
Judges, and Deputy District Judge. In addition to this, at initial level family cases are trialed in
Family Court and these courts are functioned by High Court Judges, Circuit Judges, Recorders,
District Judges, Deputy District Judges and Magistrates.
Initially cases are filed in Magistrates’ Court, Country Court and Family Court and
followed by this cases of Magistrates’ Court are sent to either Crown Court or High Court.
Crown Court undertake jury trial for indictable and some other criminal offenses. In addition to
this appeal against conviction and sentence from Magistrates’ court are also undertaken in
Crown Court. These courts are functioned by Circuit Judges, Recorders and Juries. Other than

some cases from Magistrates’ Court cases from Country Court and Family Court are also sent to
High Court. Concerned with different types of cases from different courts there are different
division in High Court that includes Chancery, Queen’s Bench and Family Divisions. These
divisions undertake hearing from different courts and also hear and undertake trial for first
instance cases. Functioning of high court is done by High Court and Deputy High Court Judges.
Followed by these courts cases are sent to Court of Appeal. In this cases from High Court
as well as Crown Court are sent for additional trial and hearing (Lightowlers and Pina-Sánchez,
2018). Court of Appeal undertakes appeal only, on points of law to either the Criminal or Civil
Division. Court of Appeal is functioned by Lord Chief Justice, Head of Division and Court of
Appeal Judges.
UK Supreme Court is highest court authority in England and Wales and cases from High
Court and Court of Appeal are sent to UK Supreme Court. UK Supreme Court only appeal on
point of law and is functioned by Justices of Supreme Court. UK Supreme Court is final court of
appeal for civil and criminal cases. Supreme Court hears cases that are of greatest public and
constitutional importance that are likely to have impact on whole population.
Alternative Dispute Resolution systems (ADRs)
Alternative dispute resolution system in UK provides voluntary alternative to the
accepted practice of using courts to settle civil disputes. Alternative dispute resolution is mainly
done through means of adjudication, arbitration and conciliation and mediation. Among these
different methods for alternative dispute resolution is arbitration and mediation are most used
methods however adjudication is also becoming an valued methods under alternative dispute
resolution system through which disputes can be resolved quickly, fairly and cheaply.
In UK alternative dispute resolution is offered by small or large firms without including
third party in dispute resolution (Alternative Dispute Resolution, 2020). Two mainly used
methods for alternative dispute resolution are mediation and arbitration. Mediation is a practice
in which an independent third party is involved and leads both the parties involved in dispute to
reach a mutually acceptable outcome. Arbitration is another method for alternative dispute
resolution in which independent third party gets involved in dispute resolution and that party
takes a decisions and this decision becomes legally binding for both the parties involved in a

dispute. In other words, mediation allows disputing parties to control outcome of resolution and
do not impose on disputing parties. Mediator or third party involved in mediation does not have
decision-making power. On the other hand, arbitrator or third party involved in arbitration has
decision-making power and their decisions are finally and legally binding on disputing parties.
There are several ways in which alternative dispute resolution can help individuals and
organisations. Alternative dispute resolution is often used when individuals are in dispute with
companies or organisations and have tried to solve dispute in different ways including customer
service and internal complaint procedure.
Alternative dispute resolution is very important and can help in solving disputes without
facing any kind of legal difficulties (What is Alternative dispute resolution (ADR)?, 2021). Civil
disputes are in between private individuals and organisations regarding rights of disputing
parties’ legal rights and interests. Some of the important issues that can be solved with
alternative dispute resolution under civil disputes include law of contract, law of tort, breach of
trust, and redistribution of shared property.
Solving disputes through legal means can involve significant cost and can also be very
time consuming but with help of alternative dispute resolution these cost and time can be saved.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of above discussion, it can be concluded that court structure of England and
Wales is highly balanced and have different court and divisions for different categories. Later
this report discussed about alternative dispute resolutions and discussion outlines that means of
alternative resolution can help in dealing with limitations of legal proceedings.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Hodges, C., 2019. Delivering dispute resolution: a holistic review of models in England and
Wales.
Lightowlers, C. and Pina-Sánchez, J., 2018. Intoxication and assault: An analysis of Crown
Court sentencing practices in England and Wales. The British Journal of
Criminology. 58(1). pp.132-154.
Online
Courts structure chart. 2021. [Online]. Available Through: <https://www.judiciary.uk/about-the-
judiciary/the-justice-system/court-structure/courts-structure-0715-2/>.
Alternative Dispute Resolution. 2020. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.allaboutlaw.co.uk/stage/areas-of-law/alternative-dispute-
resolution#:~:text=The%20principle%20forms%20of%20ADR,disputes%20quickly
%2C%20fairly%20and%20cheaply>.
What is Alternative dispute resolution (ADR)? 2021. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/what-is-an-adr-scheme>.