Your First Appearance at Court

The diagram below shows the process a charge goes through when dealt with in the District Court. More information about each step can be found on the following pages.

Unless you have been held in Police custody, your first appearance in court you will usually be in front of the registrar. The registrar is not a Judge but is a court official. They will ask you if you want to plead guilty or not guilty. If you haven’t spoken to a Duty Lawyer, the Registrar will advise you to see one first. After that, the Registrar will ask you again for your plea. If you want to be represented by a Duty Lawyer or your lawyer, he or she will enter the plea for you.

The Duty Lawyer will get a copy of the summary of facts from the Police so that they (and you) know exactly what the Police allege you have done.

Entering a “Plea”:

What happens next will depend on how you are going to plead:

•  You want to plead guilty to a minor charge

The guilty plea is indicated to the registrar who will transfer you to appear before a Judge usually on the same day. The Duty Lawyer will present your point of view and all aspects that might lead to a lighter sentence (a “plea in mitigation”). You don’t have to say anything yourself if you don’t want to. Usually the sentence will be given on the spot subject to any victim impact statement prepared by the Police.

Check with the Duty Lawyer to see if you may qualify for Police diversion.

• You want to plead not guilty:

The case will be “remanded” until a later date for a status hearing (or depositions in a case of serious “indictable” offences). You may be remanded in custody or on bail. More information about this is in the next section on “Court bail”.

Before your next hearing you will need to instruct a lawyer, apply for legal aid or, if you decide you want to defend yourself, you will need to get the evidence the Police are relying on for the offence.

You can request “disclosure” of all the evidence from prosecution  - the Police have to tell you what evidence they hold against you before they can use it in a court hearing. You should do this in writing to the Officer in charge of your prosecution, citing the Privacy Act and Official Information Act as authority for your requests.

• You’re not sure what you want to do:

The Duty Lawyer will ask for the case to be remanded to allow you to get legal advice. Usually this will be for two weeks. You will need to instruct your own lawyer, speak to a Community Law Centre or apply for legal aid.

• You want to plead guilty to a serious charge:

Where you face the possibility of imprisonment, the Duty Lawyer will decline to enter a guilty plea for you. They will advise you to seek legal advice before you decide to plead guilty and usually seek a remand without plea to allow this to happen.

However, if you still wish to plead guilty, you can do so. The Judge will ask for a pre-sentence report and remand you, possibly in custody or with bail. 

Waiting for your case to be called:

You can wait in the back of the court in the public gallery or outside the courtroom itself. You may have to wait a long time before the Judge deals with your case so be prepared to be at court for most of the day.

The court is virtually always open to the public. This means anyone can watch from the back of the public gallery and the media may be there to report on important or noteworthy cases. Your name may be published by the media unless you have name suppression.

Your name will be called when it is time to appear in front of the Judge. If the charge has a possible penalty of imprisonment, you must stand in the dock. If there is no possibility of imprisonment, you can stand outside the dock. If you’re not sure a Court official will tell you.

Judges are referred to as “Your Honour”, Sir or Ma’am (pronounced marm). The courtroom will look similar to this: