Week 1 Flashcards
Section 8C of the Magistrates’ Court Act 1980
Automatic law protects what can be reported from preliminary hearings in the Magistrates’ Court in relation to summary-only offences - low level offences
Section 8C of the Magistrates’ Court Act 1980 - what you can or cannot report 8 and 2
Law is there just in case the defendant ends up being tried in Crown Court
Defendant can ask for Act to be dropped
Act ends when the case is dealt with
You can report:
* Names of court and magistrates
* Names, ages, addresses, and occupations of defendants and witnesses
* Charge
* Names of counsel
* If a case is adjourned
* Date and place to which it is adjourned
* Bail arrangements (remanded or not)
* Whether legal aid was granted
You cannot report
- legal arguments
- discussions about the admissibility of evidence
The two principles in civil and criminal law
- Open Justice Scott V Scott
- The Right to a Fair Trial
Sources of Law
- Custom/Common Law
- Precedent
- Statutes - Acts of Parliament
- Statutory Instruments - e.g. emergency law COVID
- EU Law
- ECHR
Criminal branch of Law definition
Criminal courts deal with crimes against the state and hand out punishment - jail terms, fines etc
Civil branch of Law definition
Civil courts deal with and resolve disputes between companies, individuals, institutions etc - judge decides outcome
Civil courts - details
Hear cases such as medical negligence, divorce, breach of contract etc
- On the ‘balance of probabilities’
- Juries rarely used
- The outcome is damages (money) or a court order such as an injunction to make defendant do something
Criminal courts - details
Takes place in the crown or magistrates’ court
- Magistrates can only sentence for up to one year in jail
- Crown court can impose stricter sentence
Three types of criminal offence
Summary - more minor crimes such as shoplifting
Either-way - medium-level offending such as burglary
Indictable only - most severe and dealt with in Crown Court such as murder
Types of crimes and sentencing
Jail term - most criminals spend half sentence in jail and half on licence in the community if they behave
Suspended sentence - defendant walks free but must behave for a certain amount of time. If they commit another crime within the specified period the sentence can be activated
Concurrent jail term - term served at the ‘same time’ as the main sentence
Consecutive sentence - served in addition to any original sentence
Absolute Discharge - convicted but no further punishment
Probation order - monitored by probation service for period of time and may have to carry out community work or attend courses
Conditional discharge - no further punishment but some conditions imposed eg banned from a particular area
Fine - ££££
Community punishment order - carried out in the community, may include unpaid work or other conditions
Restraining order - banned from going within a certain distance of someone (used in domestic abuse cases)
Binding over - In effect a warning - criminal is not convicted but must agree to keep the peace for a specified period of time eg 12 months and will lose an agreed sum of money if they don’t eg £100.
Section 52a of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998
Automatic reporting restrictions in preliminary hearings at Crown/Mags court
So what you can report is limited to certain information so as not to ‘prejudice’ the case in case it eventually goes before a jury and a juror has read or seen your story
Section 52a of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 - what you can and cannot report 4 and 8
Do NOT
- Refer to ANY evidence apart from the charge
- Refer to previous convictions.
- Write anything which risks causing a risk of prejudice to the proceedings.
- Publish descriptions of the defendant
- Report reasons for bail being refused
You CAN report
- report names of counsel,
- which court, time and date
- whether bail was granted,
- whether proceedings were adjourned and to which court,
- basic protestations of innocence are okay
- whether or not legal aid was granted,
- that there is a reporting restriction in place,
- general colour
