CRIMINAL LAW PAPER

Criminal Law Paper



Criminal Law Paper

Part A

Question 2

Summary Trail in Magistrates' Court

Magistrates' courts sit regularly in just about every English town. The police ought to inform newspapers of any special additional hearings. (In Scotland, local councils run district courts. These are being replaced with justice of the peace courts run by the court service.)

Magistrates are unpaid and have a legal adviser. They have a chairman who sits with one or more fellow magistrates. Or a district judge may sit alone. If the chairman is not present, another magistrate will preside. If his/her name is Hilary Smith, he/she will appear in reports as Mr/Mrs/Ms Hilary Smith, presiding. It is important to identify who the magistrates are. Magistrates cannot keep their identities secret.

Anyone accused of a serious offence is likely to be represented by a lawyer. The case against the accused will probably also be presented by a lawyer, from the Crown Prosecution Service. In Scotland, the counterpart of the CPS is the Crown Office and Prosecutor Fiscal Service. In Northern Ireland, it is the Public Prosecution Service.

Courts have duty solicitors, to advise accused. They also have probation officers and other specialists whose advice may help with sentencing. You can clear up queries with any of these people when the magistrates are not in court. The legal adviser sits in front of the magistrates, with the lawyers opposite. Probation officers and other specialists probably sit at the side (Keogh, 2012, pp. 124-32).

Court lists are likely to give the names of the accused, their addresses and the offences alleged. In July 2009, court staffs were advised to provide these lists by e-mail. You need to check what the list says with what is said in court. The legal adviser will ask accused people their names, dates of birth and addresses, and whether they plead 'Guilty' or 'Not guilty'. Witnesses are not obliged to give their addresses.

The accused may well not be tried straight away. What can be reported of adjourned, remand, bail and legal-aid hearings is normally restricted to the court's decisions, the charges, bail arrangements, the names of the people involved and the accuser's name, occupation and address. Arguments for and against bail cannot be reported. On no account should you report any reference to previous convictions.

In court, the prosecutor may accept a guilty plea to, say, driving without due care, and drop a more serious charge - dangerous driving. A man accused of attempted murder found the charge reduced to common assault. Such changes must be reported (Purdom, 2002, pp. 97-104).

If an accused pleads 'Not guilty', the prosecutor calls witnesses to prove the accuser's guilt. It is better to report the first-hand stories of the witnesses than the prosecutor's second-hand, if polished, account.

Magistrates can protect witnesses with special measures - for example, they can allow them to sit behind screens or give evidence by video link. Under section 25 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999, they can exclude all but one reporter when they hear evidence from a ...