Appellate Courts

An appellate court – also called an appeals court, court of appeal, appeal court, second instance court, or court of second instance – is a court that only hears appeals from trial courts or another lower tribunal. In the UK, the court of appeal is the highest of all the English and Welsh senior courts and was established in 1875. It has two divisions, civil (hearing a range of civil appeals and family cases) and criminal (hearing appeals against criminal sentences and convictions). It is based in London’s Royal Courts of Justice. The court of appeal’s judges are the Chancellor of the High Court, the Master of the Rolls, the Lord Chief Justice, the President of the Family Division, the President of the Queen’s Bench Division, and the Lord and Lady Justices (of which there are currently 38). The president of the civil division is the Master of the Rolls, while the criminal division’s president is the Lord Chief Justice. Both divisions’ vice-presidents are selected from the group of Lord and Lady Justices.