University of Law (ULAW)

1. custodial sentences in the Crown Court and magistrates’ courts 2. restrictions on imposing custodial sentences 3. length of sentence 4. mandatory and minimum sentences 5. suspended sentences

1. the privilege against self-incrimination 2. legal professional privilege and waiver of privilege

1. the general prohibition on the use of opinion evidence in criminal cases and the exceptions to this rule 2. the use of expert opinion evidence at trial

1. evidential significance of the defendant’s lies and directions that should be given to the jury 2. inferences from the defendant’s failure to mention facts when questioned 3. inferences from the defendant’s failure to account for objects, substances and marks and from the defendant’s failure to account for their presence at the scene of a crime 4. inferences from the defendant’s failure to testify in their own defence during the trial, including the advice that should be given ...

Ethics Revision Notes for Bar Practice Course

1. the definition of confessions under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 2. admissibility and exclusion of confessions 3. determining the admissibility of confessions and the voir dire procedure 4. the admissibility of evidence obtained as a result of inadmissible confessions 5. the exclusion of other prosecution evidence at common law and under section 78 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 6. common categories of evidence that may be the subject of applications to exclud...

1. proceeding in the absence of the defendant 2. unrepresented defendants 3. abuse of process in the Crown Court 4. procedural steps in a jury trial, including the different ways in which evidence may be presented or proved, dealing with points of law during the trial and submission of no case to answer 5. speeches and summing up 6. verdicts, including majority verdicts and conviction of a lesser offence

1. arraignment, change of plea and pleas to lesser offences 2. pre-trial and plea and trial preparation hearings 3. prosecution offering no evidence and leaving counts to lie on file 4. applications to dismiss

1. the indictment, including time limits and the structure and format of an indictment 2. rules governing joinder of counts in an indictment and the consequences of misjoinder 3. rules relating to specimen counts 4. joinder of accused in an indictment 5. applications to sever the indictment 6. applications to amend indictments 7. voluntary bills of indictment

Criminal Litigation - Disclosure of unused material and defence statements 1. investigator’s duty to retain unused material (detailed knowledge not required), prosecutor’s duty of disclosure and the test for determining whether unused material should be disclosed by the prosecution 2. time limits for prosecution disclosure, applications to compel prosecution to disclose and the continuing duty to review 3. defence duties of disclosure, defence statements and consequences of defence disclo...