ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the civil court structure and at which type of cases are heard in which trial courts, the rules relating to transfer of cases from one level of court to another, the system of appeals and the criticisms that have been made of the various aspects of these systems. Professor Dame Hazel Genn argued in her 2009 Hamlyn Lectures that the main thrust of civil justice reform in the last decade was not primarily about greater access, nor about greater justice, 'It is simply about diversion of disputants away from the courts'. If human rights principles appear to have been breached, it may be possible to make a claim to the European Court of Human Rights after all avenues of appeal in the United Kingdom have been exhausted, or if the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction in the particular case.
