Courts & Tribunals Flashcards
Criminal: standard and burden of proof
- beyond reasonable doubt
- prosecution has the burden of proof
Who prosecutes in criminal cases
Crown prosecution service
- can also be initiated by other Governmental agencies eg. Local government for fly tipping or health and safety executive
Who can be prosecuted
Any individual or ‘legal persons’ like companies
Which cases do Mags hear
95% all criminal cases
- summary offences
- some triable either way
(Some civil jurisdiction)
Mags sentencing powers
- 6 months prison
- unlimited fine
- can send D to Crown Court for the sentencing or the trial
- cannot create precedent
- bound by Administrative Court, CoA & Crown Court
Which cases to Crown Court hear
- indictable
- some triable either way
- appeals from Mags
- all cases start at mags before being brought up (mags consider bail/remand, consider procedural issues)
Defendant Appeals from Mags
- go to Crown Court
- appeal sentence/conviction/both
- can appeal to Administrative Court if believe (special division in King’s Bench Division of the High Court) known as ‘by way of case stated
- appeal against conviction case heard again ‘de novo’
- appeal against sentence risks sentence increase
- heard by Crown Court judge & two Mags
Prosecution rights to appeal at Mags
- CANNOT appeal acquittal or if sentence too lenient
- can appeal to Administrative Court if believe (special division in King’s Bench Division of the High Court) known as ‘by way of case stated’
Defendant Crown appeals
- appeal conviction/sentence/both with permission of CoA
Crown Court prosecution appeals
- appeal under Criminal Justice Act 2003 (with consent from Director of Public Prosecutions) they then apply to CoA to quash an acquittal of a ‘serious offence’ (can quash if conviction unsafe) oral argument from both sides but no evidence heard
- common reasons are new evidence, errors in trial processes, or misdirections of law
- Attorney General may appeal against ‘unduly lenient sentence’ imposed by the Crown
Grounds to appeal sentencing
- not justified by law
- based on incorrect version of evidence
- irrelevant matters taken into account
- judge misapplied/failed to give weight to sentencing guidelines from Sentencing Council
CoA appeal to Supreme Court
Defendant or prosecution can if case has ‘point of law of general public importance’ eg. R v R
Judicial Committee of Privy Council
Final appeal court for UK,overseas territories,crown dependencies, commonwealth countries
- purpose is to ‘advise the Crown’ but they never refuse the advise
- hears criminal and civil cases
- heard by senior judiciary, and senior commonwealth judiciary
- not binding on English courts but highly persuasive
Criminal Cases Review Commission
Responsible for reviewing miscarriages of justice in the UK
- usually find new evidence/new legal argument that gives case ‘real possibility’ of being overturned
- ‘exceptional circumstances caveat’ allows them to refer with no new evidence/argument
- cases originally held in Mags/YC sent to crown court for re-hearing
Purpose of civil courts/law
Regulated legal relationship between private parties
- legal relationships may arise from contract, duty of care or many other ‘causes of action
Civil standard and burden
Balance of probability
- burden on Claimant
Which values start in which court
Under 100,000.00 start in County Court
- over 100k start in High Court