Court Of Limited Jurisdiction

Court Of Limited Jurisdiction

Court Of Limited Jurisdiction

A litigation limit is in place to stop too many applications coming into court and will probably apply to those applicants who have had repeated and unsuccessful applications to the Court before. Too many applications can also be dangerous to the child’s welfare as such the Court must do a balancing act between considering the welfare of the child and the right of unrestricted access of the litigants to Court.

A number of guidelines have been suggested to deal with this topic:

  1. The welfare of the child is the paramount concern of the Court.
  2. The Court must look at the full picture balancing all circumstances when restricting applications.
  3. A restriction is a statutory intrusion into the right of the party to bring proceedings and must be remembered as such.
  4. The power was to be the exception not the rule and used sparingly.
  5. It is useful as a last resort against those repeated and unsuccessful applications.
  6. A restriction can be placed in the interest of the child’s welfare, even in the case of no history of repeated and unsuccessful applications.
  7. If the child or primary carers would be subject to unacceptable strain this is more important factor to considering a restriction than for example animosity between parents.
  8. The restriction can be put in place in the absence of a request.
  9. It can be imposed with or without time limitations.
  10. How far the restriction goes should be proportionate to the harm it was intended to avoid.

Concurrent System of Jurisdiction

The above means that all three courts including magistrates, county court and High Court can all deal with family proceedings and must apply the same law. Cases can be transferred to higher courts on the grounds of:

  • Exceptional complexity, importance or gravity
  • The need to consolidate with other proceedings
  • Urgency

Also, cases running more than three days and containing conflicting medical evidence should be transferred from the magistrate’s to the County Court. In W v. Wakefield City Council (1995) 1 FLR 170 the Court ordered that all proceedings regarding the same children on public/private matters should be considered and heard together.