ABSTRACT

‘Paper’ committals and committal for sentence are two types of procedure, created by statute in some jurisdictions, that may be utilised instead of the full oral hearings in a preliminary enquiry. This short chapter focuses on the circumstances in which each procedure may be utilised and the law in the jurisdictions that provide for one or the other or both. The English Criminal Justice Act introduced an alternative procedure by which magistrates in committal proceedings could commit an accused person for trial without consideration of the evidence at the preliminary enquiry. Statutory provisions in this regard in Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago are very similar to those of the English Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980. To enable a committal without consideration of the evidence it must be shown that all the evidence before the court consists of written statements.