Trial Discretions: Summary Trials

Abstract The vast majority of criminal cases in England and Wales (around 97 per cent) go no further than the magistrates’ courts where they are dealt with summarily. If moves which are afoot to reduce the workload of the Crown Court come to fruition this high proportion may increase further. Summary trials, like trials on indictment, are adversarial, oral, and open to the public. The primary difference between the two modes of trial lies in the fusion on the bench of a magistrates’ court of the law and fact finding function, the conduct of a preliminary inquiry before a jury trial,2 and the greater sentencing powers of a judge of the Crown Court. The rules of evidence and procedure are basically the same though proceedings are less formal in courts of summary jurisdiction and Darbyshire in her observations of seven magistrates’ courts found that where the accused is unrepresented the rules of evidence and procedure tended to be bent for his benefit. Most magistrates’ courts are presided over by persons without legal qualifications -justices of the peace-who sit on a part-time basis with a full time professionally trained clerk.