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Legal Terms - committal proceedings
Previously, a matter was sent to the Crown Court to be tried by jury after a preliminary hearing in a magistrates' court. Section 6 of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 established two types of committal proceedings: committal without consideration of the evidence and committal with consideration of the evidence. There was no hearing of oral evidence. Before the case could be transferred to the Crown Court and the defence could file a claim that it had no case to answer, the prosecution had to prove its case prima facie. The magistrates had to determine whether the prosecution's best-effort evidence was so weak that a properly instructed jury could not fairly find the defendants guilty (R v. Galbraith [1981] 1 WLR 1039). Committal hearings were eliminated in 2001 for offenses that could only be prosecuted in court, and in 2013 they were discontinued for defendants who were charged with offenses that could be tried in court and had chosen to have their case handled by the Crown Court.
Previously, a matter was sent to the Crown Court to be tried by jury after a preliminary hearing in a magistrates' court. Section 6 of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 established two types of committal proceedings: committal without consideration of the evidence and committal with consideration of the evidence. There was no hearing of oral evidence. Before the case could be transferred to the Crown Court and the defence could file a claim that it had no case to answer, the prosecution had to prove its case prima facie. The magistrates had to determine whether the prosecution's best-effort evidence was so weak that a properly instructed jury could not fairly find the defendants guilty (R v. Galbraith [1981] 1 WLR 1039). Committal hearings were eliminated in 2001 for offenses that could only be prosecuted in court, and in 2013 they were discontinued for defendants who were charged with offenses that could be tried in court and had chosen to have their case handled by the Crown Court.
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