DATA ELEMENTS AND DATA ELEMENT CONCEPTS
COMMITTAL PLEA
IDENTIFYING AND DEFINITIONAL ATTRIBUTES
Metadata type:
DATA ELEMENT Version: 1
Definition:
The plea to a charge, which is entered by a defendant at a committal proceeding in a Magistrates' Court.
Plea refers to the formal statement made by, or on behalf of, the defendant indicating whether or not they intend to defend the charges laid against them.
Context:
All states and territories (except Western Australia) have in place a procedure for conducting a preliminary hearing in lower courts to decide whether an indictable matter can and should be committed to a higher court for determination of the charges. At the committal hearing the Magistrate assesses the strength of the prosecution evidence against the accused and will dismiss matters for which there is insufficient evidence. The procedure is designed to avoid using higher court resources in conducting a trial for cases where there is insufficient evidence to convict the accused. The committal hearing is the method by which most defendants are initiated in a higher court. The same outcome is achieved in Western Australia by a replacement process that involves a hearing termed a Committal Mention, at which a plea is taken, and where the parties are subject to early statutory formal disclosure requirements.
A plea of guilty to each charge indicates that the defendant does not wish to contest the charges and if unchanged results in a sentence hearing, consequently the charges are undefended. A plea other than guilty, including no plea, is regarded as an intention to contest the charge(s) and, if unchanged, results in the defendant being listed for a trial or defended hearing.
RELATIONAL AND REPRESENTATIONAL ATTRIBUTES
Datatype:
Numeric
Field size:
Min: 2 Max: 2
Representational form:
Code
Representational layout:
NN
Data domain:
The plea classification has two major categories separating plea on the basis of whether or not the defendant defends the charge(s) against them. Codes are provided to distinguish between the levels in the hierarchy and can be used to assist with data entry and/or output purposes.
10 Undefended n.f.d.
20 Defended n.f.d.
21 Not guilty plea
22 No plea
23 Plea reserved
24 Other defended plea n.e.c.
40 Not applicable
99 Unknown/Not stated
Guide for use:
Undefended refers to where the defendant does not contest the charge(s) laid against them.
Defended refers to where the defendant will contest the charge(s) laid against them.
More detailed definitions of the types of pleas can be found in the glossary.
Only one plea code may be applied to each defendant in a particular court level. National coding rules (see below) are applied to determine the appropriate plea code to be assigned when the defendant has multiple charges which have different pleas.
1. If a defendant has multiple charges which all have exactly the same plea, then the Committal Plea for the defendant is the same as the plea code shared by the multiple charges.
2. If the plea to one or more charges is Defended/Not guilty (Codes 20-24), the Committal Plea for the defendant is Defended n.f.d. (Code 20).
3. If the plea to each charge is Undefended/Guilty (Codes 10-11), the Committal Plea for the defendant is Undefended n.f.d. (Code 10).
Verification rules:
Committal Plea is applicable to all defendants who entered a higher court as a direct result of committal proceedings. For those defendants who entered a higher court but were not committed from a Magistrates' Court, the code 40 - Not Applicable should be assigned.
For those defendants who entered a higher court as a direct result of committal proceedings, Committal Plea will correspond to the Final Plea in a Magistrates' Court.
If Method of Initiation is Committed for trial (Code 211), Committal Plea must not be Undefended or Guilty (Codes 10-11).
If Method of Initiation is Committed for sentence (Code 212), Committal Plea must not be Defended (Codes 20-24).
Collection methods:
Committal plea is taken from the committal notice.
Related metadata:
Is related to the data element:
Method of Initiation
Date of Committal
Initial Plea
ADMINISTRATIVE ATTRIBUTES
Source document:
Higher Criminal Courts Collection Manual
Source organisation:
Australian Bureau of Statistics
History:
Commenced 2005
Comments:
None
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