Court Procedures

Court procedures for young people

There are three main ways that a young person can be brought to court after being alleged to have committed an offence. These are after:

• Being held in police cells and taken to court on the next available day
• Being released by the police and bailed to appear in court on a certain day. However, if a young person does not attend court when they have been bailed to do so, it is also an offence with which they can be charged. Therefore young people should make sure that they go to court on the day that they are supposed to.
• A summons were you have not been arrested for an offence but evidence has been produced to say you have, e.g. driving a motor vehicle and you are photographed by a speed camera.

The court system

There are three levels of criminal courts in England and Wales. These are:

• Crown court
• Magistrate's court
• Youth court

A young person will usually be seen by the Youth court, unless the day that they have to go to court is not a Youth court day when they will be seen in the Magistrate's court for adults instead. This is because Youth courts only run on certain days of the week. If a young person is seen in a Magistrate's court, then the magistrates will decide whether to send the case to the Youth court on another day or to keep it in Magistrate's court.

If the young person is jointly charged with an adult, the magistrates will have to decide if the two defendants should be kept together or if the adult should be dealt with in Magistrate's Court and the young person in the Youth court.

If the offence that the young person has been charged with is serious enough or if the adult they are charged with chooses to be dealt with in the Crown court, then the magistrates can send the case there. In the case of serious crimes, this is called a committal.

Solicitors

The first thing a young person should do when they are notified that they will have to go to court, is to get themselves a solicitor. As most young people cannot afford to pay for a solicitor, they should be able to get legal aid which will pay for these fees. If, by the time they get to court, a young person still does not have a solicitor, they should ask at the court for the duty solicitor who will advise them.

Parents

The young person should attend with at least one of their parents or another adult, preferably a relative. The magistrates will expect a parent to be in attendance and if an adult does not come with a young person, then the court may put the case off to a later date and send a summons for a parent to attend on the next occasion. If the parent does not attend on the summons date, then the court can issue a warrant for their arrest.

Punctuality at court

When a young person arrives at court, they should first of all find the usher who is organising the court schedule for that day and inform them that they have arrived. Young people should make sure they arrive in good time for their appearance. If a young person is late, or fails to attend, it is taken seriously and will usually result in a warrant for his or her arrest.

Key roles at court

The following all have specific functions at court:

Usher

The usher is the person who keeps a note of which defendants are present and which solicitor is representing them. They also decide which order people will be seen in which usually depends on solicitors being available when the usher is ready to bring the case before the court.

Clerk

The clerk is a legally qualified person whose job it is to guide the magistrates in matters of the law. Magistrates will expect the clerk to explain any points of law to them and to help with drawing up reasons for the decisions that they make about young people.

Prosecutor

The prosecutor is a solicitor who represents the Crown Prosecution Service. They will usually speak first about the young person and tell the magistrates about the alleged offence. An offence remains an alleged offence and the person remains innocent in the eyes of the law, until a person pleads guilty or is found guilty at a trial. The prosecutor will read the police and witness statements when they tell the magistrates about the offence. They will also let the magistrates know if there were any previous convictions if and when a young person has been found to be guilty.

Defence

The defence is the solicitor who acts for the young person accused of the crime. They will speak to the young person before going into court so that they are aware of the circumstances of the allegation. It is important that solicitors know everything about the incidents, so that they can respond to any issues raised in court.

Youth Offending Team

The Youth Offending Team will have a representative in the Youth court to give the magistrates any information that they have about the young person. The Youth Offending Team representative will inform the court about a young person's compliance with previous sentences and any problems or risks involved with sentencing. The Youth Offending Team officer also ensures young people are aware of the requirements of bail conditions and orders, makes arrangements for assessment reports to be written and in some circumstances produce 'stand down' reports on the day of court to be presented at court. In addition, the Youth Offending Team officer will record court processes and outcomes so that a young person's progress through the court system can be monitored.

Magistrates

Usually the magistrates, also known as the bench, will be people from the local community who have been asked to serve as magistrates and to help with the course of justice. They are not lawyers, but have been trained on how to be magistrates by the Lord Chancellor's department. They have specific rules that they have to abide by and are guided through the process of dealing with offenders by a justice's manual and the court clerk. There will usually be three magistrates, but there can be occasions when there are only two. If there is only one magistrate sitting in the court, this usually means that the magistrate is a district judge and is a legally qualified person themselves which means that they can sit on their own through the proceedings.

Pleading guilty to an offence

If a young person pleads guilty to an offence, the court has various options depending on whether or not the young person has been convicted before.

No previous convictions

If it is the first time that a young person has appeared in court and they plead guilty, the court only has the four following options open to it:

• Absolute discharge
• Hospital order
• Referral order
• Custody

If the court decides to give a Referral order, the sentence will be made that day.

If the magistrates think the offence is serious enough to warrant a period of custody in prison, they will delay the case so that the Youth Offending service has time to prepare a report about the young person so that the magistrates can then decide what sentence to give.

Previous convictions

If a young person who pleads guilty has previous convictions, they are not subject to the rules above. This means that the court has all of the sentencing options open to them. The severity of the sentence decided on by the magistrates will depend on the seriousness of the offence.

If the magistrates feel they can deal with the matter on the same day, they have a number of options, including a Conditional discharge, a fine or an Attendance centre order. If they feel that a Reparation order or an Action plan order is more appropriate, they can ask the Youth Offending service officer who is in court to provide a 'stand down' report. The Youth Offending service officer will then interview the young person at court and prepare a report on them to allow the magistrates to decide on a sentence.

If the magistrates require further information, they will have to put the matter off for two or three weeks to allow time for a full pre-sentence report to be prepared. This will be done by the Youth Offending Team and will require the young person to attend a number of interviews so that the report can be prepared in time for the next court session.

Pleading not guilty to an offence

If a young person pleads not guilty to an offence, the defence and the prosecution will probably ask for the case to be adjourned for a pre-trial review. This is simply a meeting between the two parties so that they can decide who they want to appear as witnesses at the trial. Usually they do not need the young person to attend court for these, but in some cases they do. The young person should make sure that they know whether or not their attendance is required at the next court meeting.

At the pre-trial review, the court clerk will set a date for the trial. The defence solicitor will then send a letter to the young person and their parents telling them when they have to come back to court.

On the day of the trial, the defence witnesses will be kept separate from the prosecution witnesses and the witnesses who have already been in court to give their evidence will not be allowed to talk to those who have not yet done so. This is so that the next witnesses cannot be told about what is being asked in court because this would prejudice their evidence.

Everyone who gives evidence at a trial will be asked to promise that they will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth on the Bible or if people are not religious, they can affirm that they will tell the truth. For people of other faiths, they can promise to tell the truth in a manner which their faith allows, for example, people of the Muslim faith can promise on the Koran.

The prosecution will start the trial by giving the magistrates the police report of the offence. They will question each of their witnesses in turn, and then the defence will ask the witness their questions. Once this is done, the magistrates may also have questions to ask. Once the prosecution’s case has been stated, the defence will start their case by calling their list of witnesses. The same process as above will be carried out again, but this time the defence questions the witnesses first.

When this whole process has been completed, the magistrates leave the court to discuss all of the evidence that they have heard and to decide whether or not the young person is guilty or not. If the young person is found to be guilty, then the process described above under pleading guilty to an offence will be followed. Young people who are found guilty are not subject to the rules on Referral orders. For more information, please refer to the section above on Previous convictions.

Adjournments

There are several reasons why the courts may adjourn to another date to hear the case. If the young person is not dealt with at the first hearing the court must decide whether to place the young person on unconditional or conditional bail, or to deny bail and remand the young person into Local Authority Accommodation provided by Social Services, or to remand them in custody.

Both prosecution and defence solicitors will make representations about what they think is the most suitable way to ensure the young person attends court at the next hearing.

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Page updated: 21 Jul 2009