Various Courts in the Singapore Legal System

Various Courts in the Singapore Legal System

The Singapore Court system consists of several courts to handle cases of varying scope and gravity. This article will provide a short summary of these different courts.

Cases that involve a value of claim above S$250,000 are handled by the High Court. In criminal cases, the High Court generally tries cases where the offence is punishable by death or with an imprisonment for more than 10 years.

The State Courts handle all other cases. The State Courts are divided into several different courts that handle different types of cases. They are:

• Family Courts – Dealing with family related matters such as Divorce proceedings
• Coroner’s Courts – Dealing with cases that involve the death of a person
• Juvenile Courts – Dealing with persons under the age of 16
• Community Courts – Dealing with a wide variety of social and community cases, such as neighborhood disputes, animal abuse, offenders with mental disabilities, youthful offenders, senior offenders etc.
• Small Claims Tribunal – Dealing with claims below S$10,000 arising from an exchange in goods and services. Includes rental disputes.
• Magistrate Courts – Dealing with claims not exceeding S$60,000
• District Courts – Dealing with claims of more than S$60,000 but not exceeding S$250,000

Once a decision in the State courts has been made, the parties in the civil litigation cases have an opportunity to contest the outcome by going through an appeals process that will be heard by the High Court. From the decision of the High Court, parties may seek further appeal by going to the Court of Appeal, unless the claims are barred from appeal under the law

Both the High Court and the Court of Appeal form the Supreme Court of Singapore.

For more information about the Singapore Court System, please visit: https://www.statecourts.gov.sg/