Criminal Litigation: Offence, Sentences, Allocation, Advantages, Legal Aid, Plea in Mitigation

Criminal Litigation

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Substantive Law for the offence along with the elements and range of sentences................3
Procedure for Allocation........................................................................................................4
Advantages and Disadvantages of both Magistrate/ Crown Court........................................5
Legal Aid if trial is allocated to the Crown Court..................................................................6
Matters that would include in a plea in mitigation.................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERNCES...................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Criminal Law is a body of law that deal with criminal offences and set out the rules and
procedures with an aim to protect the individual’s interest in the society. The law regulates the
apprehension process, charging and sentencing, trial and also provides modes of treatments
applicable to the offenders. Criminal law differs from the civil law and varies in accordance with
the jurisdiction. The police, criminal courts and prisons aims to serve all members of a
community. There are many criminal offences such as murder, manslaughter, dishonesty,
perverting course of justice and others (Alldridge, 2017).
Litigation is an option available with the parties to take legal actions. Criminal Litigation
refers to a legal action brought by the state against an individual. Under criminal litigation
prosecutor need to prove all the elements of the crime with a certainty of crime committed by the
accused. The state has the responsibility to prevent and reduce crime by bringing speedy justice
and by offering peace in the society. The report examines criminal jurisdiction along with
various stages of criminal proceedings, bail and legal aid entitled to the client in the case study.
MAIN BODY
Substantive Law for the offence along with the elements and range of sentences
The substantive law refers to the statutory rules passed by the legislative that governs the
behaviour of members in the society. The substantive law defines categories of both public and
private law. Under criminal law, the substantive law is defined as the acts which is prohibited by
the legislature and specifies the penalties for those who have committed such prohibited acts.
The common law includes substantive rules as well as procedural rules. According to the case
study the substantive law is related to the offence of theft committed and is governed by the
Theft Acts 1968 (Schuijers and Young, 2021). The substantive laws also identifies the defences
which can be opt by the accused, being alleged of crime. The law after identifying indicates the
penalties and sentences which is appropriate for crime committed. The government must prove
the elements of crime beyond a reasonable doubt in order to convict the accused for the offence.
The elements need to be proved are discussed below.
Actus Reus
This Latin phase means “guilty act”, a voluntary or physical actions made by the
defendant leading to crime. The prosecution must prove that the defendant made the action