Adjourn Before Sentencing

Introduction

The court can adjourn a case at any time during the court proceedings, including after the offender has pleaded or has been found guilty, and before sentencing. Details of adjourning before sentencing are noted in this topic.

Legislative reference: Section 25 Sentencing Act 2002.

Reasons to adjourn case before sentencing

The court can adjourn a case in order to enable:

• the preparation of a pre-sentence report
• enquiries to be made to determine the most suitable method of dealing with the case
• a restorative justice process to occur
• a restorative justice agreement to be fulfilled
• a rehabilitative programme or course of action to be undertaken, and
• the court to take account of the offender's response to any process, agreement, programme or course of action referred to above.

Reference: For information on the court referred restorative justice pilot, see Volume 1, Part II, Chapter 11, Restorative Justice Conferences. (Please refer to the related links section on this page).

Legislative references: Sections 10 and 25 Sentencing Act 2002.

Adjournment for making amends

When considering cases where there has been an offer or agreement to make amends, the court can adjourn the case until:

• compensation has been paid
• the performance of any work or service has been completed
• any agreement between the victim or offender has been fulfilled, and
• any measure or remedial action has been completed.

Note: Any placement or supervision required for work or programmes undertaken during an adjournment is not the responsibility of CPPS. However, it is the role of the probation officer to report back to the court on the offender's compliance with progress on any such arrangement.

Report the outcome

If the case has been adjourned to consider any form of offer or agreement to make amends or reparation, then the outcome should be reported in:

• a separate reparation report, and/or
• the offending and assessment/conclusion sections of the pre-sentence report.

Role of probation officer

The role of the probation officer is to report on any offer or agreement to make amends. This does not necessarily include facilitating such an offer. Other agencies such as police, courts, defence counsel, and victim and restorative justice groups also have direct roles to play here.

Reference: For information on the court referred restorative justice pilot, see Volume 1, Part II, Chapter 11, Restorative Justice Conferences.(Please refer to the related links section on this page).

Legislative references: Sections10 and 11 Sentencing Act 2002.

Guidelines

The following guidelines apply when dealing with any offers to make amends or reparation, when being addressed through an adjournment or pre-sentence report assessment.

The following may be done:

• Attempting to facilitate an agreement between the victim and the offender.
• Inviting the victim and the offender to participate in a restorative justice process.

The following should not be done:

• There should be no involvement in facilitating, organising or supervising any work or service or other means of making amends by the offender, unless it complies with the legal requirements of the sentence.
• Under no circumstances is there to be any handling of any money, or of any other form of goods tendered in reparation to the victim.

Adjournment for programmes

If the case is adjourned to allow an offender to undertake counselling or a programme, the responsibility rests with the court. If it is part of a restorative justice process, then responsibility rests with the restorative justice coordinator.