Crim lit - Study guides, Revision notes & Summaries

Plea in the Magistrates’ Court, allocation for trial and committal for sentence, • Sending indictable only and either-way offences to the Crown Court for trial • The committal/sending of linked summary only cases and the procedure for dealing with them in the Crown Court Preliminaries to trial in the Crown Court • The plea and case management hearing in the Crown Court and its importance to case management, • Arraignment, • Special pleas, autrefois acquit and convict (k...

Preliminary issues relating to Witnesses • Competence and compellability, • Oaths and affirmations, • The principles and procedure for the issue of a witness summons and warrant of arrest (outline only). The rules relating to the examination of Witnesses • Examination in chief: form of questioning, memory refreshing, the use of previous consistent statements, hostile witnesses, • Cross examination: form of questioning, previous inconsistent statements, restrictions on cro...

Summary trial procedure • The circumstances in which the Magistrates can proceed in the absence of the defendant, • Abuse of process in the Magistrates’ Court (key principles only), • The procedural steps in a summary trial, including reading statements and formal admissions, • Submission of no case to answer • Order of speeches, • Verdicts, • Costs after trial (key principles only), • The role of the Magistrates’ Legal Advisor in the trial (key principles only).

• The classification of offences (indictable, either-way and summary) • The rules relating to the provision of initial details of the Prosecution case • Preliminary hearings in the Magistrates’ Court (key principles only required) • Pleas generally in the Magistrates’ Court, including equivocal pleas, • The factors which the defendant should be aware of in deciding whether to elect Crown Court trial, • The approach taken by the magistrates to the question whether or not to ...

. Indictments • The time limits for preferring a bill of indictment, • The structure and format of an indictment, • The format of a count, • Counts which can lawfully be joined on an indictment, • The rules relating to duplicity, specimen counts and overloading of indictments, • The joinder of defendants on an indictment, • Applications to sever the indictment, • The consequences of misjoinder, • Applications to amend indictments, • Applications to stay and quash in...

Overview of criminal procedure • The classification of offences (indictable, either-way and summary) • The court structure in England and Wales, and how to address members of the judiciary • How criminal cases progresses through the system (outline of the progress of the three categories of criminal offence, with respect to adults and of offences of varying seriousness with respect to youths), • The funding of criminal cases (students should have an understanding of the general str...

Privilege • The privilege against self-incrimination, • The principles that apply to legal professional privilege, including waiver of privilege. Section 4: Cases involving Youths

Burden and standard of proof • The distinction between the legal burden and the evidential burden of proof, • The general rule concerning the incidence of the burden of proof in criminal cases and the exceptions to it, • The standard of proof required in criminal cases when the legal burden rests on the prosecution, • The standard of proof required when the legal burden rests on the defence.

Opinion evidence and experts • The general prohibition on the use of opinion evidence in criminal cases, • The exception to this rule in relation to expert evidence, • The definition of an expert, • The scope and limits of expert evidence in the trial, • The procedural requirements for the introduction of expert evidence under the Criminal Procedure Rules.