Criminal Litigation

SQE1

What is the conduct of the police during an investigation governed by?

PACE - Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) 1984 and the PACE Codes of Practice which outline the powers and duties of the police in England and Wales concerning the investigation of crimes.

What is an alternative to arrest?

A person can be made to appear before a court via a process known as a ‘written charge and requisition’, where the appropriate prosecuting body has the power to compel a person’s attendance before a court to enter a plea for an offence.

What is a Litigants in person

Individuals who exercise their right to conduct legal proceedings on their own behalf, rather than instructing legal representative

What sets out the criteria that comprise the ‘Interests of justice’

Section 17 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012

When are defendants not able to make an oral application directly to a judge or lay magistrates?

If an application can be made to the lay magistrates where legal aid has been refused by the designated official.

If an application can be to a Crown Court judge where a person is charged with contempt of court, where a person is in breach of a court order and there is no time to instruct a solicitor or where a defendant is brought to court on a warrant for their arrest.

How do we understand where a person enters their plea and is tried and/or sentenced?

We must understand how offences are classified

Name the three classifications of offence

Summary only

Either-way offences

Indictable only

Name the different courts in the criminal court structure

Supreme Court

Court of Appeal (Criminal Division)

High Court

Crown Court

Magistrates’ Court

Youth Court

How to determine the classification of an offence

Common Law offences are indictable only and the maximum sentence is ‘at large’ which means any sentence up to and including life imprisonment, may be imposed by the Crown Court

Statutory offences can be checked by either consulting a practitioner text or looking at the maximum sentence set out in the relevant statute

For summary only offences, list where an individual is tried and sentenced

ONLY in the magistrates’ court (plea, trial, sentence)

For indictable only offences, list when an individual is tried and sentenced

ONLY in the crown court but remember that the defendant will have their first hearing in the magistrates’ court but this is just an administrative hearing to start the court process

What