Top of the tree
In order to understand the judicial position you need to know who the top judges are and how they fit into the scheme of things.
^ TOPThe Lord Chancellor
Up to 2 April 2006, the head of the judiciary (top judge and head of all judges) was the Lord Chancellor. A member of the Cabinet and effectively appointed by the Prime Minister, he straddled a number of different roles. However all that changed with the coming into force of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. That meant that the new head was the Lord Chief Justice, then (and now) Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers .
From now on the Judicial Appointments Commission will have a panel which decides who the new Lord Chief Justice will be (when the time comes for the present one to retire). The idea is that this will remove from political control the decision as to who the top judge should be.
If all the statutory responsibilities of the Lord Chief Justice were set out this article would be about 30 times as long as it should be. Suffice it to say that it extends to being in control of all courts in England and Wales. That means that if he chose to he could even sit in the magistrates Court.
^ TOPLord Woolf
When Lord Woolf was Lord Chief Justice when visiting the regions he would sometimes sit for a few days on ordinary cases to get a feel for how matters were operating in practice. Imagine the feeling of the very junior barrister about to do some small case when he or she found out that it was to be the Lord Chief Justice sitting as the judge. Even harder for anyone expecting a simple case in the magistrates if one day they should find the Lord Chief sitting.
^ TOPAppeal Court Judges
When civil cases go on appeal to the Court of Appeal, they are dealt with by Appeal Court judges. Those judges are Lord or Lady Justices of Appeal (e.g. Lady Justice Smith, or Smith LJ as the abbreviation will sometimes be). As with High Court judges, they are referred to as My Lord or My Lady. The head of the civil division is the Master of the Rolls, the Right Honourable Sir Anthony Clarke. Probably the most famous Master of the Rolls was Lord Denning.
^ TOPThe Divisions of the High Court
There are three divisions of the High Court. The Queen's Bench Division which deals with criminal and civil cases. The civil cases can range from defamation (slander or libel, where some untrue and damaging remark is made about someone) to personal injury (Car accidents, factory accidents) to the commercial court (usually dealing with international trade of similar cases). The Family Division deals with family related matters. The Chancery division deals with a variety of business property and bankruptcy matters, also tax and intellectual property (inventions, protected by patents, or creations such as copyright, rights regarding songs or books or the like).
The head of the Queen's Bench Division and the head of the Family Division are respectively referred to as the President of that division. The head of the Chancery division was traditionally known as the Vice-Chancellor, but is now known as the Chancellor. These are all High Court judges who are in a senior position.
^ TOPCircuit Judges and Recorders
Below the High Court, circuit judges sit on both civil and criminal matters. Part-time judges who sit as circuit judges are known as recorders. Somewhat confusingly, the chief circuit judge at various cities or towns is known as "The Recorder of (name of town) ". In the more major centres the chief judge Recorder is usually addressed as "My Lord" rather than as, with most circuit judges and ordinary recorders "Your Honour"
Dealing with procedural and applications and a variety of work in both High Court and County Court, in London there are Masters and Registrars, and in the regions District Judges.
^ TOPLaw Lords
At the other end of the judicial scale, if civil or criminal matters go further than the Court of Appeal, they go to the House of Lords (soon-to-be Supreme Court). Those judges are always law Lords, such as Lord Hutton or Lady Hale.