Legal Unit 3 AOS2- Court hierarchy Flashcards
(10 cards)
Court hierarchy
Ranking of courts based on severity and complexity of cases they can hear meaning they are on different levels
Reasons for a court hierarchy
- Administrative convenience
- Appeals
Jurisdiction
Power of court to decide cases
- Original juris= power of court to hear case for first time
- Appellate juris= power of court to hear case on appeal
Administrative convenience
Court hierarchy makes efficient use of the limited financial & physical resources available in the system by providing courts with appropriate resources to deal with cases they usually hear
Why do we need court hierarchy for administrative convenience
If there was no court hierarchy than there would be no varying levels of court which civil cases can be allocated to according to the complexity of their dispute and therefore could not provide courts with appropriate resources to deal with cases they usually hear.
Why do we have administrative convenience
To provide an efficient system as much as possible for resolving disputes BY reducing the likelihood of delays or bottlenecks as courts are not varying between levels of complexity in claims
Administrative convenience example
Minor civil cases are more common & are usually allocated to the lowest court where they can be heard quickly. Due to large number of small disputes in Vic being approx 34000, there are a greater number of Mag Ct’s to deal with them with 133 Mag’s in around 51 locations
Appeals
A party who is dissatisfied with a decision in a civil dispute can review this decision in a higher court
Why do we need court hierarchy for appeals
If there was no court hierarchy then there would be no higher courts & no system of appeals could operate
Appeals example
Someone is able to review a decision made on a question of law by the Mag court in the SC(TD)
