If you are facing a criminal charge, your case will be heard in either the Magistrates’ Court or the Crown Court. If your case is heard only in Magistrates Court, your case will usually be dealt with fairly quickly. If he is found guilty or if he pleads guilty, the magistrates will often sentence him soon after he pleads guilty or after the conclusion of his trial. Sometimes, if the magistrates think their sentencing powers are too limited, they will send a case to the Crown Court for sentencing. In general, the idea in the Magistrates is that cases are dealt with quickly and efficiently.
If you face a more serious charge, your case will be heard in Crown Court. In Crown Court, you can expect your case to proceed at a much slower pace than in Magistrates Court. Although there is currently a strong trend for cases to progress much faster in Crown Court, with the introduction of the early plea scheme, generally speaking, your case will take longer to conclude in Crown Court than in the Magistrates Court.
If you plead not guilty, the court will set your case for trial. This will mean that witnesses will have to appear in court, including police officers, experts and defense witnesses.
The Court will either list your case so that it has a “fixture” or list your trial so that it goes on the “warning list.”
An accessory is basically what it sounds like: you will have a set day to appear in court, and your trial will start on that day. The court will usually give an estimate of how long they think your trial will take, for simple cases this may be 1 or 2 days; for complex cases, trials can last for many months. The reason courts require estimates of trial lengths is that there is great pressure on the Crown Court system to manage cases as efficiently as possible so as not to allow time to be wasted (no costs).
If the court does not settle, your case will go on a “warning list.” This means your case will start on any day during that notice period. Most of the time, a court will grant a “warning period” of two or three weeks. If your case does not start during this warning period, your case will go into another warning period, usually a few months later. In some courts, they will give a case they have determined is suitable for the warning list three separate periods of the warning list before giving it a fixed hearing date; this can mean that some cases take many months before reaching trial.
Courts often place defendants who are on bail on the warning list and defendants who are in custody (prison) are given a trial date. This is because there are custody terms that the courts must observe with regard to pre-trial detention and therefore strive to conclude custody cases before the custody terms expire.
If your case is on the warning list and you are anxious for your case to proceed as soon as possible, perhaps because you are concerned that your defense witnesses will not be available at a later date, then your criminal defense attorney should apply to the Court let him judge and get your trial on a fixed date instead of being left with the uncertainty of the list of warnings.