The City Law School

Burden and standard of proof • The distinction between the legal burden and the evidential burden of proof, • The general rule concerning the incidence of the burden of proof in criminal cases and the exceptions to it, • The standard of proof required in criminal cases when the legal burden rests on the prosecution, • The standard of proof required when the legal burden rests on the defence.

Summary trial procedure • The circumstances in which the Magistrates can proceed in the absence of the defendant, • Abuse of process in the Magistrates’ Court (key principles only), • The procedural steps in a summary trial, including reading statements and formal admissions, • Submission of no case to answer • Order of speeches, • Verdicts, • Costs after trial (key principles only), • The role of the Magistrates’ Legal Advisor in the trial (key principles only).

Plea in the Magistrates’ Court, allocation for trial and committal for sentence, • Sending indictable only and either-way offences to the Crown Court for trial • The committal/sending of linked summary only cases and the procedure for dealing with them in the Crown Court Preliminaries to trial in the Crown Court • The plea and case management hearing in the Crown Court and its importance to case management, • Arraignment, • Special pleas, autrefois acquit and convict (k...

. Disclosure of unused material and defence statements • The investigator’s duty to retain unused material, • The prosecutor’s duty of disclosure, • The test for determining whether unused material should be disclosed by the prosecution, including the requirement of continuous review, • Time limits for prosecution disclosure, • Applications to compel the prosecution to disclose, • Defense duties of disclosure, • The requirements relating to the contents of a defence sta...

Bail and remands • The difference between adjournments and remands, • Time limits applicable to defendants remanded in custody, • The general right to bail under the Bail Act 1976 and the occasions when it does not apply, • The grounds and reasons for refusing bail, • Bail conditions that can be applied and under what circumstances, • The practice and procedure on appeal to the Crown Court against a decision to refuse bail in the Magistrates’ Court, • The grounds upon w...