ABSTRACT
Joinder relates to the practice of hearing two or more charges at the same time (joinder of charges) or of holding the trials of two or more defendants together (joinder of parties). It does not refer to the laying of one charge which contains two or more offences. This latter situation relates to the problems of duplicity discussed above. In Clayton v Chief Constable of Norfolk [1983] 1 All ER 984, HL, the House of Lords said (p 989):
Thus the rule against duplicitous charges does not prevent a court from hearing more than one charge at a time. A court may, thus, subject to legislative provisions to the contrary, hear ‘matters which constitute the individual offence of the several offenders’ together when the evidence is ‘so related whether in time or by other facts that the interests of justice are best served by them being tried together’: R v Assim [1966] 2 All ER 881, pp 887-89. The essence of the principles of joinder, then, is that it is presumable once the offences are based on evidence that is the same or related.
