| High Court of Justice | |
|---|---|
.svg) Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom | |
| Established | 1 November 1875; 150 years ago (1 November 1875)[1] |
| Jurisdiction | England and Wales |
| Location | Strand, City of Westminster, London |
| Authorised by | Statute
|
| Appeals to | |
| Website | judiciary |
TheHigh Court of Justice inLondon, known properly asHis Majesty's High Court of Justice in England,[2] together with theCourt of Appeal and theCrown Court, are theSenior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated asEWHC (England and Wales High Court) forlegal citation purposes.
The High Court deals atfirst instance with all high-value and high-importancecivil law (non-criminal) cases; it also has a supervisory jurisdiction over all subordinate courts and tribunals, with a few statutory exceptions, though there are debates as to whether these exceptions are effective.[3]
The High Court consists of three divisions: theKing's Bench Division, theChancery Division and theFamily Division. Their jurisdictions overlap in some cases, and cases started in one division may be transferred by court order to another where appropriate. The differences of procedure and practice between divisions are partly historical, derived from the separate courts which were merged into the single High Court by the 19th-centuryJudicature Acts, but are mainly driven by the usual nature of their work, for example, conflicting evidence of fact is quite commonly given in person in the King's Bench Division, but evidence by affidavit is more usual in the Chancery Division which is primarily concerned with points of law.
Most High Court proceedings are heard by a single judge, but certain kinds of proceedings, especially in the King's Bench Division, are assigned to adivisional court—a bench of two or more judges. Exceptionally the court may sit with a jury, but in practice normally only in defamation cases or cases against the police. Litigants are normally represented bycounsel but may be represented by solicitors qualified to hold a right of audience, or they may act in person.
In principle, the High Court is bound by its own previous decisions, but there are conflicting authorities as to what extent this is so. Appeal from the High Court in civil matters normally lies to the Court of Appeal, and thence in cases of importance to theSupreme Court (theHouse of Lords before 2009); in some cases a "leapfrog" appeal may be made directly to the Supreme Court. In criminal matters, appeals from the King's Bench Divisional Court are made directly to the Supreme Court.
The High Court is based at theRoyal Courts of Justice on theStrand in theCity of Westminster, London. It has district registries acrossEngland and Wales; almost all High Court proceedings may be issued and heard at a district registry.
The High Court of Justice was established in 1875 by theSupreme Court of Judicature Act 1873. The Act merged eight existing English courts – theCourt of Chancery, theCourt of King's Bench, theCourt of Common Pleas, theCourt of Exchequer, theHigh Court of Admiralty, theCourt of Probate, theCourt for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes, and the London Court of Bankruptcy – into a new Supreme Court of Judicature (now known as theSenior Courts of England and Wales). The new Supreme Court was divided into theCourt of Appeal, which exercisedappellate jurisdiction, and the High Court, which exercisedoriginal jurisdiction.
Originally, the High Court consisted of five divisions, the King's Bench, Common Pleas, Exchequer, Chancery, and Probate, Divorce and Admiralty divisions. In 1880, the Common Pleas and Exchequer divisions were abolished, leaving three divisions. The Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division was renamed to the Family Division by theAdministration of Justice Act 1970, and its jurisdiction reorganised accordingly. The High Court is now organised into three divisions: the King's Bench Division, the Chancery Division, and the Family Division.[4] A list of hearings in the High Court's divisions is published daily.[5]
| This article is part of the series:Courts of England and Wales |
| Law of England and Wales |
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Criminal prosecution |
The King's Bench Division (KBD) – or Queen's Bench Division when themonarch is female – hears a wide range of common law cases and also has special responsibility as a supervisory court. It includes subdivisions such as the Administrative Court, the Commercial Court, the Technology and Construction Court, and the Admiralty Court.
ARoyal Commission was appointed in 1934 in order to address concerns about delays within the King's Bench Division and to determine whether any reforms would help to alleviate the problems then being experienced. Its chair wasLord Peel.[6]
Until 2005, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales was the head of the Division. The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 created aPresident of the Queen's Bench Division.
The Chancery Division (housed in theRolls Building) deals withbusiness law,trusts law,probate law, insolvency, andland law in relation to issues ofequity. It has specialist courts (thePatents Court and theCompanies Court) which deal with patents and registered designs andcompany law matters respectively. All tax appeals are assigned to the Chancery Division.
Until 2005, the Lord Chancellor was thede jure head of the Chancery Division, but appointed aVice-Chancellor who nominally acted as his deputy. The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 renamed the Vice-Chancellor toChancellor of the High Court and made him the head of the Division.
Cases heard before the Chancery Division are reported in the Chancery Division law reports. In practice, there is some overlap of jurisdiction with the KBD.
From October 2015, the Chancery Division and theCommercial Court have maintained the Financial List for cases which would benefit from being heard by judges with suitable expertise and experience in the financial markets or which raise issues of general importance to the financial markets. The procedure was introduced to enable fast, efficient and high quality dispute resolution of claims related to the financial markets.[7]
The formation within the High Court of the Business and Property Courts of England and Wales was announced in March 2017,[8] and launched in London in July 2017.[9] The courts would in future administer the specialist jurisdictions previously administered in the King's Bench Division under the names of the Admiralty Court, the Commercial Court, and the Technology and Construction Court, and in the Chancery Division under the lists for business, company and insolvency law, competition, finance, intellectual property, revenue, and trusts and probate. These courts are located at theRolls Building in central London, and in District Registries located in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Newcastle.[10]
The change was intended to enable judges who have suitable expertise and experience in the specialist business and property jurisdictions to be cross-deployed to sit in the specialist courts, while continuing existingpractices for cases that proceed in them.[11]
The Family Division deals with personal human matters such as divorce, children,probate andmedical treatment. Its decisions are often of great importance only to the parties, but may concern life and death and are perhaps inevitably regarded as controversial. For example, it permitted a hospital to separateconjoined twins without the parents' consent.[12] In 2002 it made a landmark judgement in the case ofMs B v An NHS Hospital Trust regarding the right of mentally competent patients to withdraw from life-saving treatment. The Family Division exercises jurisdiction to hear all cases relating to children's welfare, and has anexclusive jurisdiction in wardship cases. Its head is thePresident of the Family Division, currently SirAndrew McFarlane. High Court Judges of the Family Division sit at the Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London, while District Judges of the Family Division sit at First Avenue House, Holborn, London.[13]
The Family Division is comparatively modern. TheJudicature Acts first combined theCourt of Probate, theCourt for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes and theHigh Court of Admiralty into the thenProbate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court, orThe Court of Wills, Wives and Wrecks, as it was informally called. That was renamed the Family Division in 1971 when the admiralty and contentious probate business were transferred elsewhere.[14]
The Family Division has faced criticism by allowing allegedly abusive partners tocross-examine their former partners; a procedure already banned in criminal procedure.Peter Kyle,MP for Hove, claimed this amounted to "abuse and brutalisation", and called for the system to be changed.[15]Liz Truss, when she wasLord Chancellor, announced plans to end this practice, and proposals were contained in Clause 47 of the Prisons and Courts Bill beforeParliament wasprorogued for the2017 general election.[16][17][18] This practice, with the passing of theDomestic Abuse Act 2021, was officially prohibited in 2022 for both family and civil proceedings, under which section 65 of the act amended theMatrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984 to prohibit the cross-examination of victims of parties in a family proceeding, whether they be witnesses or parties of the proceeding.[19][20]
The High Court only operates within four traditional periods in the year, known assittings:
TheJustices of His Majesty's High Court of Justice are informally known asHigh Court judges, and in judicial matters are formally styled "The Honourable Mr(s) Justice (Forename) Surname", abbreviated in writing to "Surname J". In court, they are properly addressed asMy Lord orMy Lady. Since by convention they are knighted upon appointment, socially they are addressed asSir Forename orDame Forename. High Court judges are sometimes referred to asred judges after the colour of their formal robes, in contrast to the junior circuit judges who are referred to aspurple judges for the same reason.
Masters (also judges in the High Court) are addressed as 'Master', regardless of gender, or 'Judge' and they wear dark blue gowns with pink tabs echoing the red of the High Court justices' robes. Within the Chancery Division of the High Court, there are alsoInsolvency and Companies Court Judges, who hear the majority of High Court insolvency (both personal and corporate) and company law cases and trials, together with some appeals from the County Court. They too wear dark blue gowns with pink tabs and are addressed as 'Judge' in court.
Justices of the High Court, Insolvency and Companies Court Judges and Masters are appointed by the King on the recommendation ofJudicial Appointments Commission, from qualified lawyers. The Lord Chancellor, and all government ministers, are statutorily required to "uphold the continued independence of the judiciary",[21] and both Houses of Parliament have standing orders to similar effect. High Court justices may be removed before their statutory retirement age only by a procedure requiring the approval of both Houses of Parliament.
In addition to full High Court justices, other qualified persons such as retired judges, circuit judges from theCounty Court, and barristers are appointed to sit as deputy judges of the High Court to hear particular cases, and while sitting are addressed as though they were full High Court judges. Trials in London are also conducted by Insolvency and Companies Court Judges and Masters, who have almost identical trial jurisdiction to full High Court judges but who do not hear committals to prison, criminal cases, or judicial review and do not travel 'on circuit' to outlying courts.
High Court justices (usually from the King's Bench Division) also sit in theCrown Court, which try the more significant criminal cases, but High Court Judges only hear the most serious and important cases, withcircuit judges andrecorders hearing the majority.
Historically the ultimate source of all justice in England was the monarch. All judges sit in judgment on the monarch's behalf (hence they have the royal coat of arms displayed behind them) and criminal prosecutions are generally made in the monarch's name. Historically, local magnates administered justice inmanorial courts and other ways. Inevitably, the justice administered was patchy and appeals were made direct to the monarch. The monarch's travelling representatives (whose primary purpose was tax collection) acted on behalf of the monarch to make the administration of justice more even(seeRoyal justice).
The tradition continues of judges travelling around the country in set 'circuits', where they hear cases in the 'district registries' of the High Court. The 'main' High Court (in the City of Westminster, London) is not itself a High Court district registry.[22]
The High Court previously divided England and Wales into six circuits namely the Midlands, Northern England, North Eastern England, South Eastern England, Wales (includingCheshire), and Western England.[23] Since 2005, the High Court has used seven circuits, listed below, which are identical to theCrown Court regions.[24][25]
The Senior Courts Costs Office, which quantifies legal costs pursuant to orders for costs, serves all divisions. The Costs Office is part of the High Court,[26] so generally all detailed assessment proceedings commenced in the Costs Office are subject to provisional assessment.[27] Exceptions from provisional assessment are detailed assessment proceedings in which the costs claimed are large (greater than £75,000) or in which the potential paying party does not respond to the notice of assessment.
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