What is the Magistrates Court’s Jurisdiction
The jurisdiction of the Magistrates’ Court refers to the limitations placed on a magistrate authority to handle certain types of cases and to impose specific types of sentences.
- Certain serious indictable offences cannot be heard or determined by a magistrate and must proceed through committal proceedings.
- For all other offences, regardless of the maximum penalty prescribed in the legislation (unless it is less), a magistrate’s sentencing power is limited to a maximum fine of 500 penalty units. In terms of imprisonment, a magistrate is limited to imposing;
- Up to 2 years in relation to a single charge (s113 Sentencing Act 1991) and
- Up to 5 years in relation to multiple charges (S113B of the act)
What are the jurisdictional limits of a Magistrate?
All criminal cases start in the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria, but not all cases can be finalised there. A magistrate can hear and finalise all summary charges but not all indictable charges.
An indictable offence must go to the County or Supreme Court unless:
- The maximum penalty is 10 years or less; or
- There is an exception listed under schedule 2 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2009
Example of Matters that can be Heard in the Magistrates Court
- The charge of Trafficking a Drug of Dependence to a Child carries a maximum of 20 years imprisonment, but it can be heard summarily (in the Magistrates’ Court) due to the operation of Schedule 2.
- Another example is any criminal charge that is indictable and carries a maximum penalty of 10 years or less or, again, is listed in Schedule 2, then it may be finalised in the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria.
The only other further conditions for an indictable offence to be heard summarily in the Magistrates’ Court are that:
- The defendant must consent to the matter be heard in that jurisdiction; and
- The magistrate must deem the matter to be appropriate for the jurisdiction.
Examples of charges that cannot be heard in the Magistrates Court Jurisdiction | Dependent on the facts
- Theft, under section 74 of the Crimes Act, carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment but a magistrate hearing a single charge involving theft can only impose a maximum penalty of two years. If the Magistrate was hearing two charges of theft together, then the Magistrate could only impose a maximum penalty of five years.
- In this same example, theft can only be heard in the Magistrates’ Court if the amount alleged to stolen is less than $ 100,000. Any amount over $ 100,000 means the matter must be uplifted to the County Court or Supreme Court.
- Section 17 Recklessly Causing Serious Injury can be dealt with in the Magistrates Court except in circumstances where the alleged victim is an emergency worker.
Serious Indictable offences will always start in the Magistrates’ Court, this is where the preliminary hearings will occur, but if not suitable for the jurisdiction per the above rules, then the matter will always progress to the County or Supreme Courts.
Some indictable offences will be suitable to be finalised in the Magistrates’ Court but are listed in the committal stream because the prosecution deems them too serious to be determined by a magistrate. In these circumstances, as lawyers, we can make a summary jurisdiction application to the magistrate to request that the matters be moved into the summary stream.
If the charge is a summary offence, then it can not be heard in the County or Supreme Courts unless it is connected to an indictable offence that is being heard in those jurisdictions or the matter has already been dealt with in the Magistrates’ Court and is being heard as an appeal in the County Court. See section 242 of the CPA.
For more information about what is a summary offence, follow the link.
If you have been charged with an offence and you are not sure about the procedure, feel free to contact our office so we can help you navigate through what is, always a very complex process. An experienced criminal defence lawyer is worth their weight in gold when attempting to navigate the Magistrates Court of Victoria.
