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Undertaking to appear at court

Posted by Ciara Bradley on November 2 2023 at 11:02

I have been given an undertaking to appear at court. What does this mean?

You may be asked to agree to an undertaking after you have been charged with a criminal offence. An undertaking allows the police to release you from custody, on the basis that you will appear at court at a later date.

The police will provide you with details of the charges, the court date and any conditions attached to the undertaking.

Undertaking conditions both prevent you from acting in a particular way and require you to do certain things. For example, you will always be required to attend court on the date provided to you. However, you might also be prohibited from entering a particular address or from contacting a certain person. If you do not agree to the conditions, you may not be released on an undertaking. In that case, you could be held in police custody before appearing at court the next lawful day.

What is a Children’s Hearing?

Posted by Ciara Bradley on February 7 2023 at 08:45

A child who is considered to be in need of care and protection may be referred to the Children’s Reporter by the local Social Work Department. This could be for a variety of reasons ranging from non-attendance at school to a child committing a criminal offence. There needs to be serious reasons for the referral to be made.

The Children’s Reporter will then arrange a meeting, called a Children’s Hearing or Children’s Panel. The relevant people will receive a document from the Children’s Reporter setting out the reasons for the panel being held. This document is called the Statement of Grounds. You should think about taking legal advice at this stage because it is important that you fully understand the document before attending at the hearing. It is very likely that you will disagree with the Grounds.