CJS - Grade: 8 PDF

Preview

Summary

essay type...

Description

1. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a civil court system. Civil court is a government institution that settles disputes between two or more entities, typically in the same courthouse that also tries criminal cases. Sometimes, the same action such as assault will be tried both in civil and criminal court. Civil court cases may involve any combination of private citizens, businesses, government institutions, or other parties. Typically, the function of a civil court is to determine liability of one party for the injuries, which do not necessarily need to be of a physical nature, that are suffered by another party. In access to justice, it was stated that a Civil Justice System should be fair in treating litigants, they should offer appropriate procedures at a very reasonable cost, it should be in the results it delivers, and it should be responsive to the needs of those who uses it. The advantages of the civil court system is that there are legal expertise where Judges sitting in county or high court have acquired experience of the law and legal system over the years. Secondly, there are public funding in which the community legal service oversees the granting of public funding for civil cases. Thirdly, the advantage of civil court system is that they provide remedies where the civil court has the power to award the successful party a variety of remedies, compensation known as damages may be ordered to be paid from the defendant to the claimant. On the other hand, there are also disadvantages of a civil court system. The disadvantages are that it is a slow process, despite the civil procedure rules the civil justice system is still slow and delays do occur. Secondly , it lacks on technical knowledge where the judges have limited knowledge of subject matter as it may be technical or obscure in nature. Thirdly, it also lacks of flexibility where the parties have little control over the court process and procedure and the evidence at a trial is restricted by technical rules. Moreover, another disadvantage is the general cost where the parties must pay fees which can run into hundreds of pounds, to the court when commencing a claim.

2. What new reforms might further improve the civil justice system. Civil Justice Review was pointed out that the two-court system was inflexible, making it difficult to make rational allocations of judges and administrators time between the different courts. In a unified court system, all cases would start in the same way and be allocated to different sorts of judges on the basis of their complexity. Judges could be sent where they were needed the most. The English Legal System has traditionally respected the principle of open justice. Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights guarantees the right to a fair trial. This is interpreted as guaranteeing the right to a fair and public hearing before an independent court. Thus, the courts should be open to the public and all evidence presented in open court. Jeremy Bentham a legal philosopher wrote that publicity is the very could of justice. The issue is that the problems and tensions can arise between the desire to achieve justice and

open court proceedings. This tension has been noted in the context of the family Justice System, particularly where children are involved. There should be an abolishment of pre-action protocol because pre-action protocols have added up more length and expenses of the proceeding. It was suggested in the Reforming Civil Litigation 2013, that the protocol should be abolished. There should also be a change in the court jurisdiction , where more cases should be also heard in the County Courts because County Courts hearings are much more cheaper than High Court hearings. It was also stated in the Judicial Resources Appropriately 2005, where it proposed that all civil and family cases should begin at the lowest appropriate level like county or magistrates court. Moreover, the Civil Justice system could move to an inquisitorial system where the judges would take a more investigative role. When this happens , the system would be more fairer since it would be not necessary to afford expensive and best lawyers and also it would reduce tactics since tactics wont be important after that. It was also been stated that it is much more better if the civil system are replaced by ADR because the courts action are not always the best way for solving a dispute. Another remedy is provided that is known as the alternative methods of dispute resolution which are also known as ADR may be used. Court hearing are sometimes inflexible. In a court hearing, the rules of procedure lay down a fixed framework for the way in which problems are addressed where this may be inappropriate in areas which are of largely private concern to the parties involved. Secondly, the court hearings also cause a lot of publicity where the majority of court hearings are public and this may be undesirable in some business disputes, where one or both of the parties may prefer not to make public the details of their financial situations or business practices because of competition. Therefore, the ADR are able to improve the Civil Justice System and ADR will also be able to reduce the limitations of the Civil Justice System and provide better solution for it . 3. Why has the small claim court proved so popular? Little claims route within the province court was initially set up within the 1973 to provide strategy of settling little debt disputes and consumer claims without disproportionate expenses, risk or complexity. Presently, it is embodied within the small claim track of the county court and as of now bargains with claims valued at less than £5,000 that is £1,000 for individual harm claims. In spite of the fact that included within the Woolf changes, the little claim system has remained altogether unchanged by them. The small claim track remains attractive to people and little businesses as it discourages the convention of the complete court, encourages lay representation, and most hearings are concluded inside in 30 minutes. A further advantage is that costs are more often than not granted, and so any person may proceed without fear that disappointment would result in and antagonistic costs order. But there are also few problems identified in this which are there are complexity and the limits of the personal injury are very low and insufficient .Secondly, the small claim system

may have been a victim of its possess success, as the Government has on occasion considered whether the financial limits seem be raised to extend the number of cases heard in this way. It had been stated by John Baldwin with the others that the small claim track provides a good advantage to the people but on the other hand there are also few limitations about it that it wont be good to extend it to more complex cases....