Melbourne Magistrates Court - William Street

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

, a committal procedure is the process by which a defendant is charged with a serious offence under the

criminal justice Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the rehabilitation of offenders, preventing other ...

systems of all

common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...

jurisdictions except the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The committal procedure replaces the earlier

grand jury A grand jury is a jury empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a person to testify. A grand ju ...

process. Sometimes the committal procedure includes a

preliminary hearing In common law jurisdictions, a preliminary hearing, preliminary examination, preliminary inquiry, evidentiary hearing or probable cause hearing is a proceeding, after a criminal complaint has been filed by the prosecutor, to determine whether the ...

, sometimes it does not. In most jurisdictions criminal offences fall into one of three groups: There are less serious (

summary may refer to: * Abstract (summary), shortening a passage or a write-up without changing its meaning but by using different words and sentences * Epitome, a summary or miniature form * Abridgement, the act of reducing a written work into a shor ...

) offences which are usually heard without a

jury A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence, make Question of fact, findings of fact, and render an impartiality, impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a sentence (law), penalty or Judgmen ...

by a

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...

. These are roughly equivalent to the older category of

misdemeanor A misdemeanor (American English, spelled misdemeanour elsewhere) is any "lesser" criminal act in some common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished less severely than more serious felonies, but theoretically more so than admi ...

s (terminology that is now obsolete in most non-U.S. jurisdictions). There are intermediate offences which are indictable (equivalent to an old-style

felony A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "''félonie''") to describe an offense that r ...

), but which can be heard summarily. For instance, theft is usually a serious offence. If however the charge is that the defendant stole a packet of biscuits worth only a very small amount, it would probably be heard by a magistrate. In

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, these are known as ''

hybrid offence A hybrid offence, dual offence, Crown option offence, dual procedure offence, offence triable either way, or wobbler is one of the special class offences in the common law jurisdictions where the case may be prosecuted either summarily or on indi ...

s'', whereas in

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Th ...

, these are known as ''either way'' offences, and can only be heard summarily with the defendant's consent and if a magistrates' court finds that matter is suitable for summary trial. In

Victoria, Australia Victoria, commonly abbreviated as Vic, is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state (after Tasmania), with a land area of ; the second-most-populated state (after New South Wales), with a population of over 7 million; ...

, they are called ''indictable offences triable summarily''. As well as the defendant's consent the Magistrate must regard the offence as appropriate to be heard in the lower court. Finally, there are serious matters which must be dealt with in the higher courts, usually before a jury. When one is charged with an offence of the third type, a preliminary hearing is first held by a magistrate to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to warrant committing the

defendant In court proceedings, a defendant is a person or object who is the party either accused of committing a crime in criminal prosecution or against whom some type of civil relief is being sought in a civil case. Terminology varies from one juris ...

for trial. That is, whether there is sufficient evidence such that a properly instructed jury could (not would) find the defendant guilty. It is a very low-level test. The majority of committal proceedings result in a committal to trial. In some jurisdictions, the prosecuting authority may directly present a defendant for trial regardless of the result of the committal proceedings by filing an ex officio indictment. Equally, the prosecuting authority usually has the power to stop any prosecution by entering a ''

nolle prosequi , abbreviated or , is legal Latin meaning "to be unwilling to pursue".Nolle prosequi
. refe ...

''. In many jurisdictions the right of a defendant to

cross-examine In law, cross-examination is the interrogation of a witness by one's opponent. It is preceded by direct examination (known as examination-in-chief in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, South Africa, India and Pakistan) and may be f ...

witnesses during the committal is reliant on the defence establishing that it is in the interests of justice or to illuminate some relevant point. The defence very rarely calls witnesses at a committal.

England

On 28 May 2013 the committal procedure was abolished in England. As a result, the serious matters are sent straight to the Crown Court from a magistrates' court for a pre-trial hearing. There is no committal procedure to determine sufficiency of evidence. Instead, the defendant charged with the offence may make an application to the Crown Court to have the case dismissed for lack of evidence. The idea behind this reform was to get cases to trial more quickly and reduce the number of pre-trial hearings. However, it is questionable whether this has been achieved given the number of pre-trial hearings that are often required in the Crown Court. The first hearing in the Crown Court will be a Plea and Trial Preparation Hearing (PTPH), where a plea is taken and, if not guilty, a timetable for trial is set and directions given for service of further evidence, followed by the trial itself. There may be additional hearings in between (called 'mentions'). The PTPH was introduced on 5 January 2016https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/criminal/docs/october-2015/cm007-eng.pdf and replaced the previous procedure of having a separate initial preliminary hearing followed by a Plea and Case Management Hearing (PCMH) in an attempt to reduce the number of pre-trial hearings. In triable

either way offence A hybrid offence, dual offence, Crown option offence, dual procedure offence, offence triable either way, or wobbler is one of the special class offences in the common law jurisdictions where the case may be prosecuted either summarily or on indi ...

s, the defendant's right to elect a jury trial remains unfettered.

Notes and references

*Clifford E M Chatterton and Philip K Brown. Committals for Trial to the Crown Court: The Law and Practice. Fourmat Publishing. London. 1988. *John Bowers. "Committal for trial". Practice Notes on Procedure in Courts. Chapter 8.3 at page
81
to 84. *Peter Hungerford-Welch. "Committal for sentence". Criminal Procedure and Sentencing. Eighth Edition. Routledge. 2014. Chapter 5.13 at page
112
to 116. *P J Hidden, "The Benefits of Committal Proceedings" (1990 to 1991) 2 Current Issues in Criminal Justic
19
*John B Bishop, "The Abolition of Committal Proceedings" (1990 to 1991) 2 Current Issues in Criminal Justic
37
*J A R Dowd, "Committal Reform: Radical or Evolutionary Change?" (1990 to 1991) 2 Current Issues in Criminal Justic
10
*John Koumarelas, "Committals: an optional extra?" (1989) 14 Legal Service Bulleti
279
*Bronwyn Naylor, "Justiciability of Decisions in the Criminal Process: Review of Committal Proceedings in the Federal Court" (1990) 19 Federal Law Revie
352
*"Committal Proceedings Misconception" (1979) 43 Journal of Criminal La
163
*"The Floodgates of Judicial Review: Once More unto the Breach" (1993) 44 Northern Ireland Legal Quarterl
233
(Autumn 1993) *R E Salhany, "Review of Committal for Trial" (1965 to 1966) 8 Criminal Law Quarterl
31
*Peter J Connelly, "Certiorari and Committals for Trial" (1980 to 1981) 23 Criminal Law Quarterl
369
*"Committal for Trial or Sentence?" (1984) 148 Justice of the Peac
497
(11 August 1984) *Bruce M Haines, "Committals and Certiorari" (1965 to 1966) 8 Criminal Law Quarterl
141
*"Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000: Committal for Sentencing" (2012) 76 Journal of Criminal La
12
*"Committals for Sentence under Ss. 41 and 56 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1967" (1970) 34 Journal of Criminal La
200
*"From Committal Proceedings to Transfer for Trial" (1995
159
Justice of the Peace & Local Government Law 379 (10 June 1995) *Marjorie Jones, "Publicity for Committal Proceedings" in "As I see it" (1980
144
Justice of the Peace 269 (3 May 1980) *"Publicity for Committal Proceedings" in "Notes of the Year" (1949
9
The Howard Journal 7 *"Effect of Lapse of Time on Committal Proceedings" (1991
55
The Journal of Criminal Law 295 *"Committal Proceedings - Adversarial or Inquisitorial?" (1995
59
The Journal of Criminal Law 111 *"Committal for Trial by Quarter Sessions" in "General Intelligence" (1936
181
The Law Times 473 (13 June 1936)

England

Notes and references

See also