Catalogue description Records of the Divisional Courts

Divisional Courts of the High Court, consisting of two or more judges, were established under the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873 to deal with matters not proper for determination by one judge. In particular, the act provided that such courts might hear proceedings formerly reserved for the judges of the superior courts of common law sitting in banc or in banco. The hearings in banc, normally before three judges, stemmed from the civil jurisdiction of assize courts under writs of nisi prius.

Such writs directed the hearing of cases in London unless heard previously, as they generally were, at assizes or before a jury at Westminster or in the country. In such actions after the jury had brought in their verdict on the facts of the case it was usual, if there were any difficult points of law on the facts so found, for the judge, sitting singly on circuit, to reserve these for the consideration of the full court sitting in banc in London.

However, the jurisdiction of the Divisional Courts in these matters was short-lived as the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 provided that the judge before whom the trial or hearing took place should, so far as practicable and convenient, deal with such points of law before final judgment. Under the 1873 act, which allowed a right of appeal in civil actions, a disappointed litigant could, if he so wished, then take his case to the Court of Appeal.

Divisional Courts were also empowered to hear appeals, other than on indictment, from decisions of inferior courts, such as magistrates' courts and courts of quarter sessions. Until 1934 they also heard appeals from most decisions of County Courts and still do so in cases of bankruptcy and some matters of a family nature. Since the abolition of quarter sessions, under the Courts Act 1971, they also hear appeals from decisions of the Crown Court involving non-indictable offences.

They play an important part in the review of decisions of public bodies and inferior tribunals by dealing with applications for judicial review and the issue of writs of habeas corpus, certiorari, etc.

In certain cases appeal from a decision of a Divisional Court lies to the Court of Appeal and, in the case of an application for a writ of habeas corpus, direct to the House of Lords.