Preparing for the District Court List Hearing

This topic outlines the procedures required to prepare for a district court list hearing.

All preparation possible should be undertaken the day before the district court list hearing. This will allow time to gain any additional information that may be required.

Maintaining a court diary

A court diary is a useful paper record of any further remands, action required or other relevant information for the court servicing team. It is not a replacement for the recording of electronic notes but can be a useful back-up system and quick visual aid of any scheduled CPPS matters.

The court diary should record the progression of CPPS breach and application matters through the court process.

Note: References throughout this section to maintaining a court diary are applicable to those CPPS service centres that maintain this practice.

Collecting information from the court list

Follow the steps below to ensure the information required for a district court is collected from the court list.

Step	Action
1	Print the relevant court list from IOMS including the list from the 'Breaches and Applications' tab.
2	Identify offenders appearing on CPPS breaches/applications and those currently on-strength. Breaches will appear under the specific breach offence titles in the offences column, e.g. 'Breach of Home Detention'. Applications will appear as 'final disposition' or 'sentence review' in the hearing column. Note: There may be times when CPPS matters do not show either of these lists.
3	Check the court diary for any breaches/applications which have been recorded for that day's hearing. Compare the court diary list with that obtained from IOMS.
4	Mark the court list with the CPPS matters to be called in other courts (e.g. status hearings, fixture court matters, bail hearings), and confirm if a probation officer will be available to attend other courts where CPPS matters are being called. Note: In large areas it may not be possible to service all of the courts at the same time. Liaise with court registrars to have matters called in a court where a probation officer is working.

Locating files

Locate the files identified as appearing in the court for servicing.

Note: Breach and application files should be held by the team that services the court where the matter is scheduled to appear.

If a file cannot be located, follow the steps below.

Step	Action
1	Check the file location in IOMS case notes under the offender's name and relevant sentence.
2	Search under any alias the offender has.
3	Check if the matter is to be called in another court (i.e. status hearing, fixture court matters or bail hearings).
4	Contact the probation officer who filed the breach/application to establish whether they hold the file.

Checking on-strength information

The IOMS court list:

identifies offenders who are 'known to IOMS'
shows the last date that on-strength or oral information was entered for that offender
shows who the offender's last allocated probation officer was, and
shows if there is a breach or warrant to arrest (WTA) active.

The following table explains what to do with the IOMS court list.

Step

Action

Check if the supervising probation officer entered on-strength information in IOMS.

If no, go to step 2.
If yes, go to step 3.

Contact the supervising probation officer and ask them to:

enter this information prior to the commencement of court, or
record notes for an oral report.

Note: If the supervising probation officer is not available to provide the on-strength information, request that the duty officer provides this.

Check the printed on-strength information to ensure it is:

up-to-date
covers all sentences the offender is subject to
relevant to the court, and
of an appropriate standard for presentation to the court

Does the on-strength information meet the criteria above?

If no, go to step 4.
If yes, this completes the procedure.

Update the on-strength information in IOMS, or
request the supervising probation officer to update the information if time allows.

Note: If the supervising probation officer is not available to provide the on-strength information, request that the duty officer provides this.

New arrests list

On the day of the court sitting:

obtain the new arrests list from the court staff or from the police prosecution team
check the new arrests list for CPPS breaches/applications and on-strength offenders, including what court they will be called in, and
follow the procedures outlined in the next topic, Checking CPPS Breach/Application Files, for any breach/application files and on-strength information.

Updating the court list

Print another copy of the court list on the morning of the court hearing (it is likely the court list will be more accurate if printed on the hearing date).

Check the new list for any additional CPPS matters or on-strength offenders who will be appearing.

Note: In large courts, refresh the court list during the day to capture any late arrests.

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