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VENUE ALLOCATION FOR EITHER-WAY OFFENCES
When choosing the venue for trial, the magistrates' court will consider the Allocation Guidelines issued by the Sentencing Council, which advise that cases should be tried summarily in the magistrates' court, unless they are very complex, serious, or if the defendant were to be found guilty that the magistrates' court's sentencing powers would be insufficient.

Usually the maximum penalty the magistrates' court can impose is six months in prison for a single offence, with an aggregate maximum of 12 months in prison for multiple offences.  And although in the past, the magistrates' court could only impose fines of up to £5000, this cap has now been removed, and they can, in fact, impose unlimited fines for specific offences.

ALLOCATION TO CROWN COURT
If the court allocates the case to the Crown Court, the case must be sent to the Crown Court. 

ALLOCATION TO MAGISTRATES' COURT
On the other hand, if the court allocates the case to the magistrates' court, there are two options: 
- Firstly, the defendant can accept the jurisdiction and the case will be heard at the magistrates' court, although the prosecutor can apply for the case to be sent for trial at the Crown Court.
- Secondly, the defendant can reject the jurisdiction, in which case, the case will be sent to the Crown Court for trial.

Before making the decision as to whether to accept or reject the magistrates' court's jurisdiction, the defendant is allowed to ask the court questions related to the type of sentence he could face at the Crown Court.

Following this, the defendant will be asked once more whether they plead guilty. If they plead guilty, the case will proceed to sentencing. If they plead not guilty, the case will proceed to trial in whichever court has accepted or been allocated jurisdiction over the case.

SENDING TO THE CROWN COURT
If the case is to be sent to the Crown Court, the magistrates' court must send a notice to the Crown Court, detailing each offence the defendant is charged with. This is normally done electronically nowadays, as the Crown Court has, in recent years, adopted paperless trials. Parties must also comply with this paperless system, and all essential trial documents, such as indictments and witness statements, must be uploaded onto the digital case system which can then be accessed via various devices, such as computers, tablets, smartphones, etc.

So the notice which is sent from the magistrates' court to the Crown Court constitutes a draft indictment, which is sometimes called a bill of indictment, and this means a written accusation of an indictable offence against a suspect.  An indictment is required for all offences tried at the Crown Court.

PLEAS AND TRIAL PREPARATION HEARING
The defendant will also be given a date to appear in the Crown Court for a plea and trial preparation hearing. This is a pretrial hearing, which normally occurs within 28 days of sending. At the plea and trial preparation hearing, the defendant is arraigned. This means that:
- the defendant is identified by name
- the indictment is read aloud, detailing the charges against him or her, and 
- the defendant is asked to plead guilty or not guilty. 

Through this process, the bill of indictment becomes the indictment. The official way to say this is to prefer a bill of indictment. To prefer a bill of indictment literally means to bring or lay a charge or indictment before the defendant in the Crown Court. 

You might see the phrase to prefer a bill of indictment in some written papers, or perhaps some European documents when they're written in English. 

If the defendant pleads guilty, he or she should be sentenced as soon as possible, and normally this is immediately.  If, on the other hand, he or she pleads not guilty, a number of things happen.

The judge will set a trial date and further information about what is needed for the trial will be discussed, such as witness requirements.
The trial judge will set a timetable with dates for deadlines that the parties must comply with for the necessary pretrial preparation. This timetable normally has four stages:

- Firstly, the service of prosecution materials. 
- Secondly, the service of the defence response. 
- Thirdly, the prosecution response to the defence materials. 
- And fourthly, for the defence to provide any final materials. 

In most cases, there is only one plea and trial preparation hearing, but in very complex cases, a further case management hearing will be arranged. Following this, the defendant awaits trial.

Quiz