Circuit Court case

Citygirl1

A friend of mine was recently the victim of a crime. The suspect was arrested, and admitted their involvement to the police. The case has been referred to the Circuit Court.

I don't want any advice or discussion of this particular case. However, I have been reading up to help understand the process and timings better, and have some questions on which other users may be able to help.

I looked at the Courts Service annual report for 2009. In the statistics section it indicates that within the Circuit Court, of almost 3,500 defendants there were only 463 trials. There were over 3,000 "guilty pleas".

What I would ask is:
- If a defendant pleads guilty, can witnesses avoid giving evidence, and being cross examined? Does the state solicitor just talk through the events? Is this then not an actual "trial".
- If a defendant pleads guilty, can their solicitor still try to get the case dropped on a technicality?
- In reality, does it happen often that after admitting to a crime to the police, a defendant will try to plead not guilty when it comes to a trial?


Also, in the Courts Service report, under waiting times, the waiting time for trials in the Circuit Court is defined as "the time from receipt of return for trial to the hearing date".
Could anyone explain what date represents the time of "receipt of return for trial". Is this the date it is initially referred to the court, when the DPP presents their file, or not until the defendants solicitor has reviewed the file?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I hope I've kept my questions quite general. However, if it seems that I am looking for legal advice, just let me know.

Jo King

After a guilty plea, there is no need for witnesses to go into evidence. The guards will give an outline of the facts sufficient for the judge to gauge the relative seriousness of the offence in order to determine the sentence.
On a guilty plea technicalities cannot be raised as a defence.
It is rare but not unknown for a defendant to admit committing the offence to the guards and later plead not guilty.

detective

Yeah as the previous poster states it is the investigating Garda who gives a summary of the facts at the plea hearing (guilty plea). The injured party doesn't even have to be there if they don't wish.
Its very rare that someone will admit the crime and then plead not guilty, but again as the previous poster states it does happen.
The time returned for trial begins when a district court judge refers the case to the circuit criminal court. Circuit court cases tend to drag on when the defendant is not in custody.

FreudianSlippers

Guilty pleas are followed by pleas in mitigation by the Barrister for the defendant and the fact that the defendant offered a guilty plea at an early stage is usually one of the main points in a plea in mitigation on behalf of the defendant.

Citygirl1

Hi guys - Thanks very much for your feedback, which was very informative. Hopefully there will be a guilty plea in this case.....