Court dress is worn at hearings in open court in all Senior Courts of England and Wales and in county courts. However, court dress may be dispensed with at the option of the judge, e.g. in very hot weather, and invariably where it may intimidate children, e.g. in the Family Division and at the trials of minors. In the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council counsel wear court dress, but their Lordships are dressed in conventional business attire.

Court dress is not worn at hearings in chambers and in the magistrates' courts.

See Courts of England and Wales.

English advocates (whether barristers or solicitors) who appear before a judge who is robed, or before the House of Lords or Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, must themselves be robed.

All male advocates wear a white stiff wing collar with bands (two strips of linen about 5" by 1" hanging down the front of the neck). They also wear either a dark double-breasted suit (or with waistcoat if single-breasted) or a black coat and waistcoat and grey pinstriped trousers. The black coat and waistcoat can be combined into a single garment, which is simply a waistcoat with sleeves, known as a bar jacket or court waistcoat. Female advocates also wear a dark suit, but often wear bands attached to a collarette rather than a wing collar.

Junior barristers wear an open-fronted black gown with open sleeves, gathered and decorated with buttons and ribbons, and a gathered yoke, over a black or dark suit, hence the term stuffgownsman for juniors. In addition barristers wear a short horsehair wig with curls at the side and ties down the back.

Solicitors wear an open-fronted black gown similar to that worn by a QC save that the material used is the same as a junior barrister's gown over a black or dark suit and may wear a short horsehair wig with curls at the side and ties down the back.

Barristers or solicitors who have been appointed Queen's Counsel, or QCs, wear a silk gown with a flap collar and long closed sleeves (the arm opening is half-way up the sleeve). The QC's black coat, known as a court coat, is cut like 18th-century court dress, and the sleeve of the QC's court coat or bar jacket has a turnback cuff with three buttons across.

On ceremonial occasions QCs wear ceremonial dress (see below).

Until 2008, judges in the Family and Chancery divisions of the courts wore the same black silk gown and court coat or bar jacket as QCs, as did judges in the Court of Appeal. All judges wore a short bench wig when working in criminal court, reserving the long wig for ceremonial occasions, and a wing collar and bands.