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Court of Appeal judge (England and Wales)

ordinary judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ6679476 ↗
Source-derived summary

A lord justice of appeal or lady justice of appeal is a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, the court that hears appeals from the High Court of Justice, the Crown Court and other courts and tribunals. A lord (or lady) justice of appeal is the second highest level of judge in the courts of England and Wales. Despite the title, and unlike the former lords of appeal in ordinary (who were judges of still higher rank), they are not peers.

Appointment

The number of lord justices of appeal was fixed at five by the Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1881, but has since been increased. Judges of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales are selected from the ranks of senior judges, in practice High Court judges with lengthy experience, appointed by the monarch on the recommendation of the prime minister.

Jurisdiction

Applications for permission to appeal a ruling of an inferior court (usually from the Crown Court in criminal matters and the High Court of Justice in civil matters but in some instances from a County Court) are heard by a single lord or lady justice of appeal. A full appeal is heard by three Court of Appeal judges in the Civil Division. In the Criminal Division, a single judge hears appeals against conviction with two other judges of the Court of Appeal Criminal Division (typically, two High Court judges, or one High Court judge and one senior circuit judge). Appeals against sentence may be heard by a single Court of Appeal judge with another judge, or by two High Court judges.

Title and form of address

In court, a lord justice of appeal is addressed as "My Lord" or "Your Lordship", and a lady justice of appeal is referred to as "My Lady" or "Your Ladyship".

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Court of Appeal judge (England and Wales)” as ordinary judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Court, Appeal and judge.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1881—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Court, Appeal and judge providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Court of Appeal judge (England and Wales)”, the useful work is to connect “ordinary judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6679476. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1881.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Court of Appeal judge (England and Wales)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.