Committal proceedings
Let’s talk committal proceedings
and discounts for pleading guilty
You’ve been charged with an indictable offence – what now?
When you’ve been charged with an indictable offence in NSW, the first stage in the matter is the committal process. The committal process happens in the Local Court before your matter is sent to the District or Supreme Courts for trial or sentence.
The purpose of committal
In essence, the committal process is for:
The prosecution to decide what charges will proceed against you; and
You to decide whether you will plead guilty or not guilty to those charges.
At the end of that process, your matter will be sent to either the District or Supreme Courts (depending on the nature of the charges) and will either be for trial (where you plead not guilty) or for sentence (where you plead guilty).
What’s the first step?
After being charged by police, you will have the initial court date. On that date, the court will make orders for the police to serve the brief of evidence. It is usually for a period of six weeks and then another mention date in court two weeks later. Realistically, depending on the type of charges you are facing, the time for brief service can extend beyond that initial period. In fact, the prosecution has 6 months from the date you were charged to finalise the next step in the process, which is called Charge Certificate.
Charge certification
The second step is for the prosecution to file and serve a charge certificate. The prosecution has a period of six weeks to file the charge certificate. The charge certificate sets out the charges that the prosecution considers there is enough evidence to proceed with – so, the charges that the prosecution intends to proceed with if your matter goes to trial in the District or Supreme Court. These charges might be different, either in type, or in total number, to those that were originally laid by police. At court, the prosecution will file the charge certificate and the court will then adjourn your matter for 8 weeks.
Case conference
The purpose of such a long adjournment is to give enough time for the prosecution and defence to have a case conference. The case conference usually takes place at about the 6 week mark. The purpose of the case conference is to see whether or not there is any possibility of an early plea to the charges on foot or to any acceptable alternatives. There is no limit on the number of case conferences which may be held and at the end, the prosecution must file a case conference certificate.
To prepare for the case conference, it’s important that you and your defence lawyer talk about:
The charges against you and the penalties you might face
The evidence in the brief of evidence and the strength of case
The discounts to any sentence that might be given if you plead guilty and depending on the timing of the plea.
Sentencing discounts
The Early Appropriate Guilty Plea scheme sets out automatic sentence discount when a person pleads guilty. The discount given depends on the timing of the plea:
25% discount when the guilty plea was entered before committal in the Local Court
10% discount when the guilty plea is entered after committal and up to 14 days prior to when a trial is due to begin
5% discount when the guilty plea is entered less than 14 days before the trial or during the trial.
But what about Commonwealth charges?
If you are charged with a Commonwealth offence, the same process detailed above occurs at committal with the brief being served, the charge certification and case conference. All of the same time periods apply as well. The big difference with Commonwealth offences is that the automatic sentence discounts of 5% - 25% do not apply in the same way that they do for State offences.
Questions?
Some important questions to ask your lawyer throughout the committal process are:
What offences am I charged with?
What is the maximum penalty?
What is the likely penalty that I could be facing?
How strong is the prosecution case?
What are my options?
Have you been charged with an indictable offence and need some advice? Speak to one of our solicitors at Kingston Fox Lawyers today.
This article is general information only and is not legal advice.
