Court Appeals

Appealing against a judgement

A dispute, whether it entails landlord and tenant issues, contract issues, land issues, payment of debt or bankruptcy etc, will involve some sort of reward including monies or an action to be carried out by the defendant, which may lead to disagreements. These disputes will typically be over the amounts you as the claimant desire. If a disagreement over the amount of money is below £3,000 for example, the dispute is usually handled via a Small Claims Procedure. These disputes are usually solved faster as no lawyers are required. When the desired amount is worth over £3,000 but no more than £25,000, the case is heard in the County Courts or tribunals. If the amount of reward is worth more than £25,000 legal action is then presented in the High Court. Any judgement that has been made can be appealed.

Appeal process

The judgement can take months or even years as the process is rather slow. When a decision has finally been made it is possible to appeal against the judgement if you feel it was an error. You must have strong grounds for an appeal and it must be filed in the specified amount of time. It is also important to know that in certain cases you are not permitted to appeal.

Appeals can be rather time consuming and costly. Appeals against judgements of the County Court and High Court are heard by the Court of Appeal Civil Decision and a High Court judgement can even be appealed directly to the House of Lords. Once the appeal has been heard by the Court of Appeal Civil Decision and you are still not satisfied with the case it can then be appealed to the House of Lords, which is rather rare.

Once the civil proceedings have been finalised you have the option of appealing against the findings if you do not agree with them. The Court of Appeal Civil Decision or the House of Lords will hear this appeal. Appeals are rare, especially appeals to the House of Lords as they are very time consuming and costly.