Court Jurisdiction Question 4

Hi all,

Here is the fourth question.

Read the following statement and answer the questions below:
A legal commentator noted that the court hierarchy ‘serves the community well in terms of justice. “Smaller” cases can be quickly heard and resolved. More complex cases, or those with more serious consequences, take more time to resolve’.
a. Explain two other reasons to justify the existence of a court hierarchy.

The court hierarchy exists to enable the operation of the doctrine of precedent. The hierarchy enables higher courts to create binding precedent that must be followed by all lower court, this allows experienced and learned judges in higher courts the opportunity to ensure consistency in the lower courts, provide guidance to lower judges and ensure that a legally sound decisions result in ‘like’ cases. For example, the Studded Belt Case 1996 created new precedent regarding the definition of a ‘dangerous weapon’.

Furthermore, the hierarchy enabled the courts to specialise in the types of cases relevant to their specific jurisdictions. This enables them to develop the necessary skills, processes and expertise to hear cases fairly and efficiently. For example, the Magistrates Court has branches such as the Children’s Courts that are ‘fully conversant’ in their specific areas of law and are able to deal with specialised cases.
4 marks

My comments:

For court hierarchy type questions its straight forward. For each reason, give it its own paragraph. For each reason give an example. Know one or two for each reason for your sac’s and the exam. Ideally, you don’t want to be doubling up by using the same example to demonstrate things in different topics. You want to demonstrate a breadth of knowledge that puts you apart from your peers and the rest of the students in the state.

I hope this can help you,
JB