English Litigation

Disputes which cannot be resolved in England generally end up before the Civil Courts. Claims with a value of under £5,000 are generally heard by the small claims court, while cases worth more than £50,000 or of special weight come before the High court. In between these two jurisdictions one finds the County Court, that is the work horse of the English court system and which adjudicates on cases ranging from £5,000 to £50,000.

The English Appeals Procedure

Appeals on decisions from the lower courts are available on points of law before the Court of Appeal, while points of law of special public interest may go up from the Court of Appeal to the House of Lords. Points involving questions of Europeanlaw may be referred to the European Court in Luxembourg. The gateway within the legal system in England is the solicitors' profession.

The role of the Solicitor

The public has a direct right of access to solicitors, who acting on the instructions of their clients will, as the case demands, institute or defend proceedings before the courts on their behalf. Solicitors have conduct and management of the case and as such not only deal with the drafting of pleadings, interlocutory applications and the gathering of evidence, but increasingly appear in court as advocates. The barrister's profession which is a referral profession entrusted traditionally with advocacy before the court and which until recently had a monopoly right of audience before most courts, has now increasingly to share this monopoly with solicitors. However, often, for reasons of convenience, cost effectiveness and proficiency, solicitors will continue to brief barristers to appear at court, though strictly speaking they could do the job themselves. What characterizes the English administration of justice, is the testing of evidence at trial by specialist lawyers (barristers or solicitors) versed in the art of examination-in-chief and cross-examination and the law of evidence.

This process and its preparation is time consuming and expensive. Furthermore, the costs will generally "follow the cause" which means that the loser will have to bear a substantial proportion of the legal costs of the winner, besides paying his own costs. As legal aid is nowadays far less available than in the past, the risk of ending up saddled with huge costs in the event of an unsuccessful claim is a deterrent to certain types of litigation.