Help page
Welcome to the website for the judiciary of England and Wales. We hope that you will find our site easy to use, but if not, then the aim of this page is to help you find your way around the site if you do have difficulties.
General information
The design of the website takes a slightly different approach to that traditionally employed by websites (for example, left hand navigation). You will find a narrow band across the screen on every page. This contains the main navigation home areas (for example “About Judges” or “Key Facts). These will always remain the same.
Most navigation for the site is in information boxes on the right hand side of the screen. The information contained in this area will be relevant to the page you are currently visiting. You will always be able to get back to where you started by clicking on the options in the first right hand box on the page. In most cases, the link will be called “introduction”. This is the same area as the home area detailed in the banner (as described above).
There are several other information boxes on the right hand side of most pages. These contain related links, for relevant information elsewhere on the site; external links, for relevant information on other websites.
Another box, on every page, details, useful links relevant to the whole site, access keys, and a glossary. This latter option gives definitions for a large amount of legal terminology – if we’ve missed anything let us know.
If you need to return to the home page, click on the identity “Judiciary of England and Wales” in the top left of the page – it acts as a “return to home page” navigation.
Most sections contain a what’s new box on the right hand side which contains information relevant to that particular section. Alternatively, if check the 'what's new' section contained in the pink box in the top right of every page.
If it's not apparent which of our headings your area of interest will be in, you can use the sitemap, or the website's own search engine to help guide you to the most likely pages for the subject you're looking for.
If you really get stuck, you can use the 'back' button in your browser to return to the previous page.
Main site categories
This website uses the following main category headings, all of which are available from every page:
Key Facts - this section of the website provides key facts about the judiciary and includes information on the legal year, judicial biographies and numbers of judicial office holders.
About the judiciary – this section contains a wide range of information about the judiciary. You can learn more about the roles, responsibilities and powers of the different members of the judiciary; read about a day in the life of a judge; or find out about the history of court dress. There's also information on the history of the judiciary; the importance of judicial independence; and how the changes brought about by the 2005 Constitutional Reform Act affect the judiciary.
Learning resources – there are a number of interactive activities for your to complete. These include quizzes, case scenarios and information on landmark cases.
Publications and media – Judges are often asked for their views by the Government when consulting on a new set of proposals. Whilst judges do not get involved in politics, it is entirely legitimate for them to set out their views on the likely impact on the courts of proposed legislation or policies.
Judgments and guidance – you'll be able to access the latest court judgments, as well as some of the legal directions handed down by judges. There's also some useful information on sentencing, explaining how judges take particular decisions in this complex area.
Page content
All factual information on the site is located in the content part of the page – in short, this is the area that covers the left hand side, under the main banner.
In the home area of each of the main headings, there is a quote, in red text, which gives a flavour of what is in that section of the site. There is then a more formal introduction to that page, explaining the contents of the section. Beneath that, there is usually a snippet of information, with read more… at the end of it. Clicking on read more… will take you to the relevant information about that snippet. These snippets replicate the navigation in the right hand box.
Accessibility
Access keys have been implemented on this site to improve keyboard access to content. The UK Government access key standard has been adopted and provides alternative navigation to core areas of the site.
The site has been designed to meet a wide range of accessibility requirements and we are keen to hear from you if you have any specific access needs. Indeed, if you have any comments or suggestions to help us make our website more informative or easier to use we would be pleased to hear from you. Please email us with any queries.
Help with Portable Document Format (PDF) files
Some documents are provided in Portable Document Format (PDF). If you do not have a Portable Document Format reader installed on your computer, you can download the software free of charge from the Adobe website.
Viewers with visual difficulties may find it useful to investigate services provided to improve the accessibility of Acrobat documents: http://access.adobe.com.
Please note that these files might not be fully accessible for screen-reader software or other needs. If you need a fully accessible version, please email us.
FLASH Macromedia
The learning resources section of the site relies on FLASH Macromedia files to make the various activities interactive. If you do not have FLASH Macromedia installed on your computer, you can download the software free of charge from the Macromedia website
Real Player / Windows Media
The interview between the Lord Chief Justice and Marcel Berlins relies upon users having access to either Real Player or Windows Media. Both are available free of charge.