It has already been noted that in certain minor matters magistrates’
courts have civil jurisdiction, but their main function is
to deal with criminal cases. Although from a strictly legal
point of view magistrates’ courts are of comparatively
little importance, from a practical viewpoint they have enormous
importance, as they hear and dispose of well over 90% of criminal
cases.
There are over 700 magistrates’ courts throughout the
UK, staffed by some 24,000 lay magistrates and 52 stipendiary
magistrates.
Magistrates’ courts are also known as ‘petty sessions’
or ‘courts of summary jurisdiction’, and also,
colloquially and very wrongly, as ‘police courts’.
It is unfortunate that different names are used, because they
signify no distinction, and can lead to confusion.
Magistrates’ courts can themselves deal with summary
cases, that is, comparatively minor offences. At the other
extreme there are offences triable only on indictment, the
more serious crimes such as murder and rape, which can be
tried only in the Crown Court. In between, there are certain
crimes, for example, theft, which are triable ‘either
way’, that is, they can be dealt with by a magistrates’
court if the defendant agrees, but otherwise they are tries
by the Crown Court.
With offences triable either way, the defendant can always
insist on trial by jury at the Crown Court, but he cannot
always insist on summary trail. If the magistrates feel that
the trial would be better heard by the Crown Court, they may
transfer it to that court, although they must first consider
any representations made by the defendant. Magistrates have
power to impose a fine up to £1000 and /or a sentence
of imprisonment of up to six months, but if they consider
that these penalties are inadequate, perhaps because the defendant
already has a bad criminal record, they can commit the defendant
to the Crown Court with a view to a heavier sentence being
imposed.
Children under fourteen years of age must always be tried
by magistrates for any offence other than homicide (murder
or manslaughter), and young people aged between fourteen and
seventeen may, if they consent, always be tried by magistrates,
again with the exception of homicide.
From a magistrates’ court the defendant (but not the
prosecutor) may appeal to the Crown Court against either conviction
or sentence. The Crown Court may allow the appeal, but if
it does not, it may pass any sentence which the magistrates’
court could have passed, that is, a fine of £1000 and/or
sentence of imprisonment of not more than six months, which
means that in some circumstances the sentence may be increased.
For example, a fine of £250 imposed by the magistrates
may be increased to £500, or a sentence of imprisonment
of three months may be increased to six months. There is therefore
a certain danger to the defendant if he appeals to the Crown
Court.
An appeal from a magistrates’ court may also be made,
by either the defendant or the prosecutor, to the Queen’s
Bench Division of the High Court by way of case stated. The
magistrates set out in writing the reasons for their decision,
and the appeal must involve a matter of law only. A further
appeal to the House of Lords is possible, but only if the
appeal raises a matter of law of public importance and leave
to appeal is granted either by the Divisional Court or by
the House of Lords.
Juvenile courts
When trying people under the age of seventeen the magistrates
sit as a Juvenile Court. In such a court there must be magistrates
of both sexes, and the proceedings must be held at a different
place, or at a different time, from the normal proceedings
of the court. Generally, the hearing is less formal, and it
is conducted in private. The normal requirement is that the
parents of the defendant must be present.
The juvenile court also deals with care proceedings, where
a child is brought before the courts at the instance of a
local authority, the police, or such people as officials of
the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
on the grounds that the child is being neglected, or is beyond
the control of, his parent or parents, irrespective of whether
he has committed a crime. The parent or parents of the child
are expected to attend the hearing and persons who can give
evidence as to the child’s conduct or condition, such
as the headmaster of his school, also attend. Both the child
and the parents are invited to make statements. If it is shown
that the child is in need of care, the magistrates will make
a care order which may, but does not always, involve putting
the child into the care of the local authority; this means
that he will live in a community home until he is eighteen
or until the care order is revoked.
The second main function of magistrates’ courts is to
hold a preliminary examination when a person is accused of
an indictable offence. In exercising this function the magistrates
are not concerned with establishing a defendant’s guilt
– although they may dismiss the charge if the case against
him is so weak as not to justify a trial – but with
determining whether the facts are such as to warrant a trial
in the Crown Court. If they are, the defendant is committed
for trial, but this does not imply any presumption of guilt;
the defendant may have a good defence which he chooses not
to disclose until the Crown Court hearing.
The value of this preliminary hearing is open to grave doubt.
The legal theory us that it saves the time of the Crown Court,
but in practice this is true only to an infinitesimal degree;
997 out of every thousand preliminary hearings result in the
defendant being sent for trial. On the other hand, the hearings
occupy a great deal of time of hard-pressed magistrates, and
all the evidence given at the preliminary hearing must be
given again at the trial, at a greater expenditure of time
and money. It is worthy of note that Scotland has always managed
without the preliminary hearing.
|
|
UK
Legal Directory