Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Civil complaints and appeals in magistrates’ courts: jurisdiction, limitation, procedure, service, evidence, hearings, orders, costs and enforcement (England and Wales)

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Practice notes

Complaint proceedings underpin the civil jurisdiction of magistrates’ courts. They are adversarial and, at their inception, were almost indistinguishable from criminal cases, commonly started by an information. Criminal procedure has been revised repeatedly over the years, whereas civil procedure has altered far less. Even so, the kinship means many rules on informations still bear on complaints.

enforcement of civil financial liabilities, including council tax, rates and child maintenance
appeals against decisions of other bodies, for example licensing decisions or certain decisions of public authorities or regulators
police forces seeking civil behaviour orders, such as sexual harm prevention orders, football banning orders and domestic violence protection orders/domestic abuse prevention orders

The basis of proceedings on complaint in the magistrates’ court

Magistrates’ courts are statutory creations and hold no inherent jurisdiction. Proceedings for an order on complaint are governed by the statute that creates the order and by sections 51–64 of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980 (MCA 1980). Those provisions in Part II establish a standard procedure that applies to all applications on complaint, except where a relevant statute...

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Siân E. Jones

HM Courts and Tribunals Service

After a short period in private practice Siân Jones entered the magistrates’ courts service as a justices’ legal adviser in 1983. She worked at magistrates’ courts in the Worcestershire, the West Midlands, North Wales, Cleveland, and Cambridgeshire and Essex, holding office as justices’ clerk from 2004. In 2018 she took up her present position in the Legal Operations Team of HM Courts and Tribunals Service as Head of Legal and Professional Services and secretary of the Justices’ Legal Advisers and Court Officers’ Services (formerly the Justices’ Clerks’ Society). She is one of seven senior lawyers authorised by the Chief Justice to direct justices’ legal advisers on their advice to magistrates. She was a member of the Justices’ Clerks’ Society’s council from 2007, being elected President in 2012. She was a member of the Criminal Procedure Rule Committee from 2015 to 2018, and presently attends it in an...

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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