ABSTRACT
All summary offences are tried in the magistrates’ courts. In addition, statute provides that certain indictable offences may be tried summarily.1 When this procedure is invoked, the matter is thereafter tried in the same manner as a summary offence. Summary proceedings are governed almost exclusively by statute as magistrates (and Justices of the Peace) are creatures of statute.2 The legislative provisions and magistrates’ powers have been considered and interpreted by the courts over time and case law now seems to amplify statute in respect of summary proceedings.
