Other types of hearings

Adjournment

An adjournment is when proceedings that day stop and are set to continue at a later date.

Whenever there is an adjournment, the Court will consider whether the client should be in custody (known as remand in custody) or on bail until the next hearing. Bail can be with or without conditions (known as conditional/unconditional bail). Where bail is refused at the first hearing, the Magistrates’ Court has to review it again within 8 days and thereafter if the circumstances of the case change.

Committal Hearing

If the Magistrates decide that an either way offence has to be decided in the Crown Court, or a defendant elects to have his/her case in the Crown Court then there will be a committal hearing (also known as a section 6(2) hearing or section 6(2) committal). This is when the prosecution provide the defence with sufficient evidence against a defendant. If the evidence contains enough information to suggest that an offence was committed (known as there being a case to answer) then the matter will be formally committed to the Crown Court.

Pre-trial Review/Mention

If there is to be a Trial in the Magistrates or Crown Court, the Court may decide it wishes to have a pre-Trial review (PTR) (also sometimes referred to as a Mention hearing). This is a hearing where the Court considers whether all parties are ready for a forthcoming trial. The Court may direct the defence or prosecution to carry out tasks to ensure that the trial goes ahead smoothly and is not delayed. If the defence or prosecution have problems with the Trial date for any reason (such as a witness is not available etc.) then they must make an application to vacate (change) the Trial date.


 

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