The criminal courts in the United Kingdom are as follows-
(i)The Houses of Lords;
(ii)The Court of Appeal (Criminal Division)
(iii)Divisional Court of the Queen's Bench Divisions;
(iv)The Crown Court;
(iv)The Crown Court;
(v)Magistrates' Court.
"Magistrates Court"
Magistrate's court This court is at the bottom of the criminal court structure in England, which is sometimes known by its old name the court of
petty sessions, or the court of summery jurisdiction. AS defined by the Magistrate Courts Act. 1952, a magistrate's court is any justice or justices of peace acting under any enactment, or by virtue of his or their commission or unde common law.
Function of the court:
It may function as a court of original jurisdiction in which trial procedure is adopted. It may also function as a court to do the work of preliminary investigation.
Procedure of the court
Procedure of the Magistrate's court is regulated by -
(1) The Magistrate Court Act, 1980.
(2) The Criminal Justices Act, 1988.
Procedure in exercising original jurisdiction:-
When the offence is not grievous in nature the magistrate exercises original jurisdiction. No jury sits in such cases. Generally two magistrates sit and decide a case.magistrate, there magistrates decide such cases. Such courts try offences like drunken driving.case of lay Procedure in performing investigative functions At the first stage the magistrate conducts the preliminary investigation as regards the nature, gravity of the offence which has come before he magistrate Court. Two magistrates sit anddecide the preliminary investigation. If a prima facie nature of a case is present it may be referral to the crown court for trial. So, it is very important step. The magistrate may thereby decide the case. In absence of prima facie case, it is discharged. If a case is triable either by magistrate court or by crowWn court, then the magistrate has to decide whether there is a necessity of jury. Here the accused is given the choice of option as to the necessity of jury. If the accused wishes to be tricd without jury then the magistrate court tries the case. But in case of with jury the case is tried by the crown court.
Composition of the court:
Magistrates court, which are manned mainly by lay justices. handle some 97 per cent of all criminal cases. In 1989 there were 1.89 Million cases tried. Of these, 0.8 million were minor monitoring changes. Of them 0.6 million were other cases and they could only be tried in the magistrates' courts, 0.4 millionwere cases that could have been tried in the Crown Court but the defendant choose instead to have the case dealt summarily before the magistrate. There are more than 550 Magistrates' Courts, some of which sit everyday, some of which sit very occasionally. They are manned by 26,000 lay magistrates and some 60 or so professional, full-time and paid stipendiary magistrates.
