List of County Courts in England and Wales

List Of County Courts In England And Wales

The system of county courts in England and Wales' dates back to the County Courts Act 1846, which received Royal Assent on 28 August 1846 and was brought into force on 15 March 1847. England and Wales (with the exception of the City of London, which was outside the scope of the Act) were divided into 60 circuits, with a total of 491 county courts within these circuits. The then Lord Chancellor, Lord Cottenham, wanted everyone to be within seven miles of a court, and the final scheme came close to that aim. One county court judge was appointed to each circuit, assisted by one or more registrars with some limited judicial powers, and would travel between the courts in his area as necessary, sitting in each court at least once a month. Few permanent courts were needed initially, given the infrequency of court hearings, and temporary accommodation such as a town hall would often be used where there was no existing courthouse for use. The judicial business of the county courts is now carried out by circuit judges (a term introduced by the Courts Act 1971) and district judges (as the post of registrar was renamed by section 74 of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990). As at 1 April 2010, there are 680 circuit judges and 448 district judges.

Over time, whilst new courts have been opened in various locations, there has been an overall reduction in the number of locations where a county court is held. There are still 176 locations where a county court has been based without a break since 1847, as shown in the table. Some county courts share a building with the Crown Court for the area (as at Maidstone Combined Court Centre, for example); others share a building with the local Magistrates' Court. With the closure of Nelson County Court in 2010, there are currently 216 county courts, including the specialist Patents County Court. In June 2010, the Ministry of Justice announced plans to close 54 county courts and 103 magistrates' courts, in order to save £15m in annual running costs and £22m in necessary maintenance. After consultation, it was decided to keep five of these county courts open: Barnsley, Bury, Llangefni, the Mayor's and City of London Court, and Skipton.

The current statutory basis for the county courts is the County Courts Act 1984, with the Civil Courts Order 1983 specifying where county courts are located in England and Wales. The court system is administered by Her Majesty's Courts Service, an Executive Agency of the Ministry of Justice. For administrative purposes, the courts are divided by HMCS into seven regions: London, South East England, South West England, the Midlands, North East England, North West England and Wales. The London region has the fewest county courts, with 18; the South East region has the most county courts, with 46. There are 22 county courts in Wales. The system of 60 circuits was abolished in 1970, and circuit judges and district judges can now sit in any of the courts for the region to which they have been allocated.

All name changes before 1 August 1983 (the date when the Civil Courts Order 1983 came into force) reflect changes in the locations where the court sat. Before then, a county court with more than one location in its title would sit at each location named. The obligation for one court to sit in multiple locations was removed by the Civil Courts Order 1983. Instead, it was specified that a county court was to be held at each location named in the order and courts were to be named after that one location (save for a few exceptions where the name of a former court town was retained in the court's title, such as the Aldershot and Farnham County Court).