Lord chief justice is the head of the judiciary and the president of the courts in England and Wales. The lord chief justice presides over the King’s Bench Division of the High Court of Justice. The monarch of the United Kingdom appoints the lord chief justice on the advice of the prime minister of the United Kingdom. William the Conqueror appointed a justiciar to preside in the King’s Court and to have overall control of the other courts. The office of justiciar disappeared in the late 1200’s. In the late 1500’s, the senior judge of the King’s Bench began to use the title Lord Chief Justice.
