How to Prosecute & Defend in a Magistrates Court Trial.... & Deal With the Tricky Issues

Introduction

As we all know, things can happen very quickly and unexpectedly during the course of a trial and it is therefore very important to have a thorough grounding in many areas in order to be able to think about the problem that has arisen and the legal solutions.

More and more criminal practitioners are conducting their own trials in the Magistrates' Court and never has it become so important to develop advocacy skills and a thorough understanding of the finer points of evidence.

This in-person course is aimed at those practitioners who find the idea of a trial rather daunting and also experienced practitioners as there is always something new to learn.

What You Will Learn

This in-person course will cover the following:

• What to do when your witness is mute/hostile/reluctant
• The options available to you as the advocate when the defendant fails to attend for the trial
• What to put on the preparation for effective trial hearing form (PET) once a 'not guilty' plea has been entered by the defendant
• Making effective use of Section 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003
• Dealing with Sections 119 and 120 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003
• Dealing with bad character and hearsay issues during the course of the trial or at the very outset once a 'not guilty' plea has been entered
• Making a submission of no case to answer and countering a submission
• The structure of a criminal trial as a result of the amendments brought about by the Criminal Procedure Rules 2015 (as amended)
• The non-attendance of the complainant or defence witnesses - things for the advocate to consider
• Applications to exclude unfairly obtained evidence and countering such applications
• Dealing with opening and closing speeches
• Examination-in-chief, cross-examination and re-examination
• Adverse inferences generally and how to address the Court concerning them
• Res gestae
• Sections 114, 115, 116, 117 and 118 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003
• Section 41 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 and questions relating to the previous sexual history of the complainant