Can you find out details of criminal court trials/sentences etc. If so how?

[Halifaxmum]

Hello my AB pals!

Just wondered if there is any way of finding the details of a criminal court case in your local area. If there is, how do you do it? Or is it all confidential?

Thanks x

[jackthehat]

If the case you are interested in is historical ; Section 4 of the Public Records Act 1958 requires that transcripts of court cases are closed to the public for a minimum of 30 years - often longer.

Your only sources of information is the newpapers of the day.

[mccfluff]

as JTH said the local papers will usually send someone to court but not all cases will feature

[Halifaxmum]

Thanks to you both!

[New Judge]

Generally all adult court criminal proceedings in England and Wales are matters of public record. (The same is not true of proceedings involving defendants aged under 18, which are generally confidential). The public has the right to access records of verdicts and sentences. There is nothing secret about these proceedings either at the time they occur or later.

The difficulty in accessing them lies firstly in establishing where they are (some are kept locally, some centrally) and arranging to inspect them. However, facilities are available if you know where to look, but there is no single place to go for all of them.

Ideally you need to know where the proceedings took place and then enquire where the records for that particular court are held. There are some websites which do show details of large numbers (but not all) criminal proceedings. “The Law Pages” is an example:

http://www.thelawpages.com/

Transcripts are a different matter. Magistrates’ Courts do not routinely have stenographers to record their proceedings although notes of evidence given in trials are taken by the court’s legal advisor. However, these and Crown Court transcripts do not form part of the court’s record which is publicly available.

[jackthehat]

Aha.......!

NJ - Is my response entirely incorrect ?
I only ask because it was an answer I received on this very forum to a question about a court-case in which I have an interest.
I shall be most miffed if I was misled.

[New Judge]

Well jack, each court has its own “register” wherein is recorded the outcome of all the criminal proceedings it deals with. This register (at least the records of adult prosecutions) is a public record which is available for inspection. The practicalities of finding details of any particular case are a bit cumbersome. Ideally you need to know where a case was heard, the date it was heard and the name of the defendant. Otherwise your enquiries could be a bit lengthy.

[Halifaxmum]

Thank you New Judge - helpful and informative as ever!