Crown Court
The Supreme Court of Judicature of England and Wales consist of the Crown Court along with the Court of Appeal and the High Court. The Crown Court was established in 1971 according to the Courts Act of 1971. This court is a replacement of the periodical local courts of Assizes and the Quarter Sessions. Crown Court is a unitary court which deals severe criminal cases and it also handles limited civil cases in additional to the crime cases that are referred from the Magistrates’ courts.
There are about 90 Crown Courts that are stationed across England and Wales in six regions, but recently the region has been divided into seven. The divided regions where the Crown Court is located are in London, Wales, Midlands, North East, South East, North West and South West. The newest addition to the Crown Court is the Central Criminal Court in Old Bailey. This Central Criminal Court before being a part of the Crown Court was formally launch by its own Act of Parliament and it is now a primary Crown Court of England.
The Crown court, the Magistrates’ court and the County court often shares the facilities like the same building or the same jurors. This constant sharing of the same facilities has been increasing since the HMCS (Her Majesty’s Courts Service) got established in 2005.
Judges of the Crown Court
The Judges who handles the cases in the Crown courts are no less the same as in the other courts. They are the same Judges who sit in High Courts, as well as in the County Court and it may even be the Barrister. The Senior Circuit Judges and the High court Judges handle the cases in the Crown Courts when it is labeled as a serious one. The serious cases allotted to them may be a murder case or a rape case or even treason cases. The less severe cases are allotted to the Barrister and the County Court Judges. The conduct of giving these cases to the particular Judges depends upon the Lord Chief Justice.
The job of the Judge is to pass a sentence to the offender, the verdict of the cases will be given by the Jury members and it is in their hands, according to their findings, that they can proclaim the offender guilty or not guilty. The Judge can only give the sentence according to the decision of the Jury members.
Trails in a Crown Court
The trails in a Crown Court are mainly taken in front of the Judge and the Jury members, since the cases are most often serious offences. The punishments that are offered in a Crown Court are more severe than the Magistrates’ Court. The cases are mostly transferred from the Magistrates’ Court when the magistrate feels confident that the offender has committed a serious crime that can be given a severe punishment. It is only in the Crown Court that the Judges have the authority to award the offender a sterner sentence.
The most appealing part of the trails in the Crown Court is that if the defender of the case is found not guilty, than they will be release from the case with no recorded conviction in their names.