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In the criminal court, individual magistrates have equal sentencing powers to district judges and deliver verdicts on both “summary” and “either way” offences that carry up to twelve months in prison, or an unlimited fine. [5] Defendants may hire a solicitor or barrister to represent them, often paid for by legal aid.
Magistrates also sit at the Crown Court to hear appeals against verdict and/or sentence from the magistrates' court. In these cases the magistrates form a panel with a judge. [60] A magistrate is not allowed to sit in the Crown Court on the hearing of an appeal in a matter on which they adjudicated in the magistrates' court. There is a right of ...
Sentencing in England and Wales refers to a bench of magistrates or district judge in a magistrate's court or a judge in the Crown Court passing sentence on a person found guilty of a criminal offence. In deciding the sentence, the court will take into account a number of factors: the type of offence and how serious it is, the timing of any ...
In more serious cases, where magistrates' consider that their sentencing powers are insufficient, they can send 'either-way' offenders to the Crown Court for sentencing. [6] All criminal cases begin in a magistrates' court.
The Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 (c.6) is a consolidation Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that brings together parts of several other Acts dealing with the sentencing treatment of offenders and defaulters. [1] It was drafted by the Law Commission and the Scottish Law Commission. [2]
The maximum sentence a magistrates' court can impose is six months imprisonment for a single offence, or 12 months imprisonment for multiple offences, and an unlimited fine. [7] A magistrates' court is the starting point for the majority of the most serious types of crime that are later committed to the Crown Court.
A magistrates' court may set aside and vary decisions of its own court, in relation both to sentence and conviction. In relation to conviction, a magistrates' court may order a rehearing of a case against a person convicted by that magistrates' court. [1] The court may exercise the power when it appears to be in the interests of justice to do ...
The magistrate judge's seat is not a separate court; the authority that a magistrate judge exercises is the jurisdiction of the district court itself, delegated to the magistrate judge by the district judges of the court under governing statutory authority, local rules of court, or court orders. Rather than fixing the duties of magistrate ...