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There are 63 full-time, legally qualified stipendiary magistrates who may sit alone and usually preside in courts in urban areas where the workload is heavy.
Cases involving people under 17 are heard in juvenile courts. These are specially constituted magistrates' courts which either sit apart from other courts or are held at a different time. Only limited categories of people may be present and media reports must not identify any juvenile appearing either as a defendant or a witness. Where a young person under 17 is charged jointly with someone of 17 or over, the case is heard in an ordinary magistrates' court or the Crown Court. If the young person is found guilty, the court may transfer the case to a juvenile court for sentence unless satisfied that it is undesirable to do so.
The Crown Court deals with trials of the more serious cases, the sentencing of offenders committed for sentence by magistrates' courts, and appeals from magistrates' courts. It sits at about 90 centres and is presided over by High Court judges, full-time 'circuit judges' and part-time recorders. All contested trials take place before a jury. Magistrates sit with a circuit judge or recorder to deal with appeals and committals for sentence.
The Government is planning to alter court procedures regarding cases of serious or complex fraud with a view to by-passing full committal proceedings in magistrates' courts at the discretion of the prosecution, but with a special procedure under which the accused would be able to apply to the Crown Court to be discharged on the ground that there was no case to answer.
Дата публикования: 2015-01-13; Прочитано: 650 | Нарушение авторского права страницы | Мы поможем в написании вашей работы!