This consultation was published in 2005, it invited comments on the scope for unifying the first instance civil and family court jurisdictions and for creating new single-tier civil and family courts.
The consultation period closed on 27 April 2005. The summarised responses report outlines the conclusions reached on the options.
Consultation Paper
Responses
Contact details
How to download and access files
This consultation paper was the first phase in a scoping study that assessed the case for unifying the jurisdictions of the High Court, the county courts and the family proceedings courts. Responses received helped us to identify and quantify the full costs and benefits of unification. The paper itself considered the potential for creating a single civil court of first instance in England and Wales by amalgamating the High Court and the county courts. The jurisdiction of the family proceedings courts was also considered. It had been argued that unifying these jurisdictions would represent the next logical step following the fundamental reforms of civil procedure introduced in 1999.
Download
consultation: A single civil court? 
[PDF 310kb, 61 pages]
This report summarises the responses we received to the consultation 'A Single Civil Court? It describes how the consultation process has influenced the final shape of the policy and announces the conclusions that we have reached. In particular, it sets out that we have adopted 'full unification' as a longer-term policy objective.
Download
summary of responses
[PDF 216kb, 58 pages]
Further copies of the consultation paper can be obtained by contacting the address below:
Fola Shodeinde
HMCS Civil and Family Directorate
Jurisdiction and Fees Branch
Southside, 1st Floor (Post Point 4)
105 Victoria Street
LONDON SW1E 6QT
Tel: 020 7210 1568
Fax: 020 7210 1988
If any of this information is not fully accessible for your needs, please email us.
The document above is available in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF). If you do not have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer you can download the software free of charge from the Adobe website.
Viewers with visual difficulties may find it useful to investigate services provided to improve the accessibility of Acrobat documents: http://access.adobe.com.