- Once you have decided to claim trial, the Court will schedule an administrative hearing known as a Pre-Trial Conference (PTC) to be conducted to manage the progress of the case up to the day of the trial.
- A PTC is a type of Court hearing which is conducted in a closed-door setting by a Judge and attended by your lawyer (if you are legally represented) and an officer representing the Prosecution (e.g. Deputy Public Prosecutor). You will need to attend to the PTC if you are not represented by a lawyer.
- The following events may take place at the PTC before the criminal trial:
- The PTC may be used to allow the parties to discuss how they intend to manage the presentation of their evidence and make efficient use of the time allotted for the trial.
- Trial hearing dates will be scheduled once the parties involved in the case are prepared to start the trial.
- The number of trial dates allocated will depend on the number of issues and evidence involved in the case i.e. more trial dates will be allocated for a case involving many or complicated issues and a large quantity of evidence.
- You should be prepared to inform the Court of the evidence that you will be presenting and relying on.
- You will also need to confirm the number of witnesses you intend to call and their availability to attend the trial. Interpreters will be provided by the Court if any of your witnesses do not speak English.
You will be responsible for ensuring that your witnesses attend the trial. You can apply to the Court to issue a formal notice to compel your witnesses to attend the trial if you believe that they may not attend voluntarily.