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Australian Crime : facts and figures 2004

5. Criminal courts

Structure of criminal courts in Australia

There is a hierarchy of criminal courts at both the federal and state/territory levels.

  • Magistrates court: a lower court that deals with relatively minor or summary criminal offences. Under some circumstances, these courts may also deal with less serious indictable offences. They are also responsible for conducting preliminary (committal) hearings for indictable offences.
  • Intermediate (district/county) court: a higher court that, together with the supreme court, deals with more serious crimes. Intermediate courts hear the majority of cases involving indictable crimes.
  • Supreme court: the highest level of court within a state or territory. Supreme courts deal with the most serious crimes.

Minor criminal offences are called summary offences and major offences are called indictable offences. Indictable offences normally require a trial by judge and jury.

Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory do not have intermediate courts; all relevant charges are dealt with by their respective supreme courts. In states with both supreme and intermediate courts, a majority of charges are decided at the intermediate court level.

All state, territory and Commonwealth courts handle a number of matters that appear in the court system for the first time, although almost all criminal charges are lodged for the first time at the magistrates court level.

National statistics on charges, trials and sentencing of suspects at all levels of courts are available for the first time this year. The ABS publishes statistics on defendants whose cases were initiated and finalised in higher and magistrates criminal courts. (Higher courts comprise those at the intermediate and supreme court levels, where defendants charged with serious or indictable offences are dealt with, and where appeals are also heard.) The ABS magistrates court data are still experimental, and this should be taken into consideration when using these data. Furthermore, ABS magistrates court data do not include defendants finalised in children's courts, electronic courts, family violence courts, Koori courts or drug courts.

In addition, in recent years the Productivity Commission has produced statistics on the number of lodgments at each court level.

Source: References 28 and 29

The criminal court process

Case flows

Cases passing through the courts generally share the following common elements:

  • lodgment - the initiation of the matter with the court;
  • pre-trial procedures (committal hearing or discussion and mediation between the parties);
  • trial; and
  • court decision - judgment or verdict followed by sentencing.

Source: References 28 and 29

Lodgments

Most lodgments are processed by the magistrates court in the relevant criminal jurisdiction.

  • In 2002-2003, 860,546 cases were lodged in criminal courts in Australia.
  • Cases initiated in magistrates courts accounted for 96.4% of all lodgments in the criminal courts, while 3.1% were initiated in district/county courts and 0.5% in supreme courts.

Source: Reference 28

Timeliness

The duration between the lodgment of a matter with the court and its finalisation is referred to as timeliness. Generally, lower courts complete a greater proportion of their workload more quickly because the disputes and prosecutions heard are less complex than those in higher courts, and cases are of a routine or minor nature.

Committals are the first stage of hearing indictable offences in the criminal justice system. A magistrate assesses the sufficiency of evidence presented against the defendant and decides whether to commit the matter for trial in a superior court. Defendants are held in custody pending a committal hearing or trial, or released on bail. The conduct of the committal hearing is important for timely adjudication of the charges against the defendant.

Source: Reference 28

Appeals

Appeals from magistrates courts are heard at the intermediate court level in jurisdictions with intermediate courts. In the ACT, Tasmania and the Northern Territory, magistrates court appeals are heard in the supreme court. Appeals from the intermediate courts and the Northern Territory and Tasmanian supreme courts are heard in the court of criminal appeal in the supreme courts. Appeals from the ACT supreme court are heard in the federal court.

Court decision

Cases are finalised at the courts in the following ways:

  • adjudicated - determined whether guilty of the charges based on the court judgment, or plea of guilty; and
  • non-adjudicated - occurs through a variety of means, including withdrawn by prosecution, defendant unfit to plead, accused dies, diplomatic immunity or a statute of limitations applies.

Sentencing

There is a variety of sentencing options available at each court level, including but not limited to:

  • fine;
  • good behaviour bond;
  • probation order;
  • suspended sentence;
  • community supervision;
  • community custody;
  • home detention;
  • periodic detention; and
  • imprisonment.

Sentencing data for adult offenders are available for the first time this year across the states and territories. The ABS is continuing to work towards a regular detailed sentencing collection for higher courts and magistrates courts.