Whats the difference between the Crown court and the Magistrates court?
The magistrates court is the court that deals with the majority of criminal offences, it deals with the lower level trials and it deals with all cases from the very beginning. So any case whether it’s a rape or a murder or criminal damage would start off in the magistrates court. With criminal damage if the defendant pleaded not guilty they’d have their trial most likely in the magistrates court. If it was a murder it would go straight to the Crown Court but it would pass through the magistrate’s court on the way. The more serious cases would go to the Crown Court and there would be a trial there. In the Crown Court there would be a jury and a judge and the case would be presented to the jury by the barristers or the solicitor advocates because they can now appear in the Crown Court as well. So that would be a much more formal process, a much longer process having a trial in the Crown Court and the jury would have to hear all the facts and decide on the basis of the evidence they have
