Case Going to crown court. Advice please.
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So we now have to wait until March where my ex will go to crown court to enter a plea. What I want to know is if he pleads guilty will he get sentenced then or at a later date?
thank you for any advice and for reading x
thank you for any advice and for reading x
Hi Rusty123,
As I understand the system, initial plea hearings are usually held at magistrates courts as all criminal cases have to start there. If it's an either way offence (sentence can be passed by magistrates or a judge at crown court) the magistrates will decide if the crime can be sentenced by them or if it should go to crown court for sentencing - assuming a guilty plea.
It's unlikely that sentencing will be at the plea hearing in either case as it will probably br referred for a pre-sentencing report by Probation.
If it's a trial - not guilty plea - it will be passed to crown court.
If the charges do not fall within magistrates court sentencing powers, it will again be referred for reports and passed up to crown court.
Best of luck xxx
As I understand the system, initial plea hearings are usually held at magistrates courts as all criminal cases have to start there. If it's an either way offence (sentence can be passed by magistrates or a judge at crown court) the magistrates will decide if the crime can be sentenced by them or if it should go to crown court for sentencing - assuming a guilty plea.
It's unlikely that sentencing will be at the plea hearing in either case as it will probably br referred for a pre-sentencing report by Probation.
If it's a trial - not guilty plea - it will be passed to crown court.
If the charges do not fall within magistrates court sentencing powers, it will again be referred for reports and passed up to crown court.
Best of luck xxx
We've plea hearing on Thursday, I think it's 4 weeks after x
Yes, I think they try to aim for crown court sentencing between 2 and 4 weeks after the magistrates plea hearing. In our case the original date was two weeks later but it ended up 4 weeks later due to our barrister being unavailable. This was last summer. However, with Covid, I think a lot of people have suffered longer delays - which is horrible.