SOURCE CURRENCY
2024 Edition. Up to date to 1 September 2023

Anthony & Berryman's Magistrates' Court Guide 2024 is the definitive guide to all activities of the magistrates' court and provides a completely up-to-date picture of the law as at 1 September 2023.

Six sections cover the following topics:

- Criminal offences dealt with in magistrates' courts
- Sentencing
- Road traffic offences
- Property in possession of police
- The youth court
- Liquor licensing
- Betting and gaming licensing
- Council tax
- Court room procedure
- Remands in custody and bail
- Justices in the Crown Court
- The role of the justices' clerk
- Applications to a justice

Practical and easy to use, it is the single most important guide to all the activities of the magistrates' court, containing straightforward and concise coverage of new case law.

The 2024 edition incorporates the provisions of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, the Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022 and the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, which have come into force since the last edition and are relevant to magistrates’ courts. We have also updated CPD references to the Criminal Practice Directions 2023.

Dozens of recent cases have been added, of which the following are examples:

- Attorney General’s Reference (No 1 of 2022) – Criminal damage caused in the course of a public protest and Convention rights
- R v Musharraf (Sana) – Harassment can include making false complaints to the complainant’s regulator provided they caused the complainant distress, and such complaints can also fall within stalking
- Candlish v Director of Public Prosecutions – ‘Low value’ shop theft allegations should not be treated as summary stand-alone offences, notwithstanding their aggregate value, up to the point of plea and allocation
- R v Mohamed and others – Facilitating unlawful immigration – effect of changes made by the Nationality and Borders Act 2022
- R v Bowser – Deprivation order re a Bentley car worth £23k upheld following conviction for dangerous driving
- R v S – It was wrong for the Crown Court not to remit an offender to the youth court, or to exercise the powers under Courts Act 2003, s 66, where the mandatory conditions for a referral order were met
- Saunders v Bristol Magistrates’ Court – Adjournment of trials owing to failure to warn witness to attend – interests of justice – reasons required to be given – apparent bias
- R v ZA – Sentencing children and young people – an entirely different approach to sentence is required than that which courts routinely apply to adult offenders