Magistrates' Courts Rules, 1952

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
CitationSI 1952/2190

1952 No. 2190 (L. 18)

PROCEDURE

The Magistrates' Courts Rules, 1952

17thDecember 1952

18thDecember 1952

1stJune 1953

ARRANGEMENT OF RULES

1. Citation.

2. Commencement.

3. Interpretation.

Information and complaint

4. Information and complaint.

Proceedings preliminary to trial on indictment

5. Taking depositions of witnesses and statement of accused.

6. Binding over witnesses and prosecutor to attend trial.

7. Procuring attendance at trial of witness bound over conditionally.

8. Place of trial to be stated in warrant or recognizance.

9. Accused to be told of right to apply to High Court for bail.

10. Notice to governor of prison on committal on bail.

11. Decision not to commit to be entered in register.

12. Documents and exhibits to be retained and sent to court of trial.

13. Supply of copies of depositions and information to accused.

Summary trial of information and hearing of complaint

14. Information to be for one offence only.

15. Plea of guilty, consent to summary trial, etc., to be entered in register.

16. Consent to making order to be entered in register.

17. Order of evidence and speeches: information.

18. Order of evidence and speeches: complaint.

19. Form of conviction or order.

20. Committal to quarter sessions for sentence.

Summary trial of indictable offence

21. Duty to recall witnesses who have given evidence before examining justices.

22. Preservation of depositions where indictable offence is dealt with summarily

Right to claim trial by jury depending on previous conviction

23. Inquiry into antecedents where right to claim trial by jury depends on previous conviction.

Remand

24. Remand on bail for more than eight days where sureties have not entered into recognizances.

25. Documents to be sent on remand for medical inquiry.

Order for discharge

26. Absolute or conditional discharge to be entered in register.

Order of detention in a police station

27. Order of detention in a police station.

Reception order

28. Documents to be sent on making reception order.

Deposition of person dangerously ill

29. Deposition of person dangerously ill.

Appeal to magistrates' court

30. Appeal to be by complaint.

Bastardy and orders for periodical payment

31. Time for hearing bastardy summons.

32. Method of making periodical payments.

33. Duty of clerk to notify arrears of weekly payments.

34. Revocation, variation, etc., of orders for periodical payment.

35. Application for sums under affiliation order to be paid to person having custody of child.

36. Attachment of income or pension.

Satisfaction, enforcement and application of payments

37. Notice to defendant of fine.

38. To whom payments are to be made.

39. Duty of clerk to give receipt.

40. Relief of collecting officer.

41. Application for further time.

42. Notice to defendant before enforcing order.

43. Execution of distress warrant.

44. Reasons for fixing term of imprisonment on conviction to be entered in the register.

45. Payment after imprisonment imposed.

46. Order for supervision.

47. Transfer of fine order.

48. Civil debt: judgment summons.

49. Enforcement of affiliation orders, etc.

50. Notice of adjudication on complaint for enforcement of affiliation order, etc.

51. Notice of date of reception in custody and discharge.

52. Direction that money found on defaulter shall not be applied in satisfaction of debt.

53. Directions as to time for payment, instalments, transfer of fine and supervision to be entered in register.

Register

54. Register of convictions, etc.

Evidence

55. Proof of service, handwriting, etc.

56. Proof of proceedings.

57. Proof that affiliation, maintenance orders, etc., have not been revoked, etc.

Appeal to quarter sessions

58. Documents to be sent to quarter sessions.

59. Notices for purpose of appeal.

60. Abandonment of appeal.

Case stated

61. Application to state case.

62. Case stated by two justices on behalf of all.

63. Case to be stated within three months.

64. Contents of case stated.

Recognizance

65. Recognizance to keep the peace, etc., taken by one court and discharged by another.

66. Application to vary order for sureties or dispense with them.

67. Notice of enlargement of recognizances.

68. Recognizances taken before person other than court which fixed them.

69. Notice to governor of prison, etc., where release from custody is ordered.

70. Release when recognizances have been taken.

Warrant

71. Committal to custody to be by warrant.

72. Warrant to be signed.

73. Warrant of arrest.

74. Warrant of commitment.

Summons

75. Form of summons.

76. Service of summons, etc.

Form in which offence may be stated in documents

77. Statement of offence.

Miscellaneous

78. Application for, and notice to be given of, order under s. 7 (3) of Road Traffic Act, 1930.

79. Forms.

80. Saving for the Summary Jurisdiction (Children and Young Persons) Rules, 1933.

81. Revocation of previous rules.

Schedule—Rules revoked.

I, the Right Honourable Gavin Turnbull, Baron Simonds, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, in exercise of the power conferred upon me by section fifteen of the Justices of the Peace Act, 1949(a), as extended by section one hundred and twenty-two of the Magistrates' Courts Act, 1952(b), do hereby, after consultation with the Rule Committee appointed under the said section fifteen, make the following rules:—

Citation

1. These rules may be cited as the Magistrates' Courts Rules, 1952.

Commencement

2. These rules shall come into force on the first day of June, nineteen hundred and fifty-three.

Interpretation

3.—(1) In these rules "the Act" means the Magistrates' Courts Act, 1952, "contribution order" has the meaning assigned to it by section eighty-seven of the Children and Young Persons Act, 1933(c), "judgment summons" has the meaning assigned to it by rule 48 and other expressions have the same meaning as in the Act.

(2) The Interpretation Act, 1889(d), shall apply to these rules as if they were an Act.

INFORMATION AND COMPLAINT

Information and complaint

4.—(1) Subject to any provision of the Act and any other enactment, an information or complaint need not be in writing or on oath.

(2) An information may be laid or complaint made by the prosecutor or complainant in person or by his counsel or solicitor or other person authorised in that behalf.

(3) It shall not be necessary in an information or complaint to specify or negative an exception, exemption, proviso, excuse or qualification, whether or not it accompanies the description of the offence or matter of complaint contained in the enactment creating the offence or on which the complaint is founded.

PROCEEDINGS PRELIMINARY TO TRIAL ON INDICTMENT

Taking depositions of witnesses and statement of accused

5.—(1) A magistrates' court inquiring into an offence as examining justices shall cause the evidence of each witness, including the evidence of the accused, but not including any witness of his merely to his character, to be put into writing; and as soon as may be after the examination of such a witness shall cause his deposition to be read to him in the presence and hearing of the accused, and shall cause the witness to sign the deposition.

(2) One of the examining justices shall sign the depositions.

(3) After the evidence for the prosecution has been given, the court shall, unless it then decides not to commit for trial, cause the charge to be written down, if this has not already been done, and read to the accused and shall explain to him its nature in ordinary language.

(a) 12, 13 & 14 Geo. 6. c. 101.

(b) 15 & 16 Geo. 6 & 1 Eliz. 2. c. 55.

(c) 23 & 24 Geo. 5. c. 12.

(d) 52 & 53 Vict. c. 63.

(4) The court shall then say to the accused—

"You will have an opportunity to give evidence on oath before us and to call witnesses. But first I am going to ask you whether you wish to say anything in answer to the charge. You need not say anything unless you wish to do so; and you have nothing to hope from any promise, and nothing to fear from any threat, that may have been held out to induce you to make any admission or confession of guilt. Anything you say will be taken down and may be given in evidence at your trial. Do you wish to say anything in answer to the charge?",

or words to that effect.

(5) Whatever the accused says in answer to the charge shall be put into writing, read over to him and signed by one of the examining justices and also, if the accused wishes, by him.

(6) After complying with the requirements of this rule relating to the statement of the accused, and whether or not he has made a statement in answer to the charge, the court shall give him an opportunity to give evidence himself and to call witnesses.

(7) Where the accused is represented by counsel or a solicitor, his counsel or solicitor shall be heard on his behalf, either before or after the evidence for the defence is taken, at his discretion, and may, if the accused gives evidence himself and calls witnesses, be heard on his behalf with the leave of the court both before and after the evidence is taken:

Provided that where counsel or a solicitor is heard both before and after the evidence is taken, counsel or the solicitor for the prosecution shall be entitled to be heard in reply.

Binding over witnesses and prosecutor to attend trial

6.—(1) The time at which the court shall bind over a witness as required by section five of the Act shall be as soon as practicable after his deposition has been signed.

(2) Every recognizance under section five of the Act shall be in the prescribed form and shall be acknowledged by the person entering into the recognizance and signed by one of the justices before whom it is entered into.

(3) As soon as practicable after taking such a recognizance as aforesaid the court shall give notice thereof to the person bound by the recognizance.

(4) Where the court has directed that any witness shall be treated as having been bound over to attend the trial conditionally as provided in section five of the Act, it shall give notice to the witness in the prescribed form.

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