Adjournment, brief service orders and defended hearings in the Local Court.
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Sydney Criminal Lawyers® are a team of experienced and highly respected Criminal and Traffic Defence Lawyers with offices located opposite Sydney's Downing Centre Court within the Sydney CBD.
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Transcript:
I'm here in Downing Centre Local Court. If it's the first day you're in court and you wish to plead not guilty what you should do is go to level 4, exit the lift, and in front of you there will be a notice board. Look for your name and it will tell you which courtroom you're in. Once you come into the courtroom you take a seat in the public gallery, which is the area in front of me. You'll wait until the magistrate calls your name. When your name is called walk up to this microphone here to my right. The magistrate will ask you what you wish to do. Tell the magistrate "I wish to plead not guilty your honour". At that stage the magistrate will do one of two things. The magistrate may, if your matter is not very serious, they may set it down for a defendant hearing. That means put a month, two months, whatever the case may be down the track for what's called a defended hearing. That's when the witness has come to court, and one by one the witnesses will go up on the witness stand, here to my right, and they will give their version of the events. The prosecution's witnesses, that is the other sides witnesses will go first and they'll give their version of what occurred. You will then have the opportunity to ask then questions, that's called cross examination. If you're not represented, that is if you don't have a lawyer, you can ask them questions yourself. So they'll go up on the witness stand one at a time and you get to ask them questions. Once they're all finished then you can decide whether or not you want to go up on the witness stand. So you will go up to the witness stand, you'll give your version of the events, then the police prosecutor or the DPP prosecutor, who's the person on the other side who sits at the end of the bar table, will ask you questions and they will challenge your testimony. So they will say that what you said is not true. After the magistrate hears all of this and also hears what's called closing submissions at the ends of your case the magistrate will decide whether you're guilty or you're not guilty. So the magistrate may set the matter down for hearing on the first court date if it's a relatively trivial matter, alternatively the magistrate may order brief service orders, that means that the magistrate will order that the other side give you all of their statements and other materials upon which they were like within four weeks, and then you'll have to come back to court normally after six weeks, and at that time the magistrate will ask you once again whether you wish to continue to plead not guilty or whether you wish at that stage to plead guilty. If you want to continue to plead not guilty at that stage the magistrate will normally set the matter down for a defendant hearing and you'll go through the process that I've already described. That's a very very basic outline of what occurs if you wish to plead not guilty.
