Adjournments: Getting Them, Resisting Them, and What Courts Expect

Adjournments sound procedural, but they can decide outcomes. In this episode, Clive and Colin unpack when adjournments should (and shouldn’t) be granted, how to prepare and argue them, and the traps that lead to exclusion of evidence, wasted costs, or even acquittals. They also cover special wrinkles: absent defendants, “part-heard” perils, motoring totters/exceptional hardship timing, Newton hearings, and youth/adult severance.

Hosts Clive Smith and Colin Beaumont We start with the culture shift under the Criminal Procedure Rules and Practice Directions: courts are under pressure to hear trials on the day, to protect public confidence and manage backlogs. That doesn’t make adjournments “bad”—just more scrutinised. The duo lay out the Picton/CPD factors, show how to use (or resist) them, and stress giving the bench something useful today (disclosure, witness summonses, narrowing issues). We then explore when courts should adjourn of their own motion even if neither party applies, how late evidence can backfire (exclusion vs. adjourn), and how timing your applications can decide the case.

Adjournments aren’t dirty words—they’re case-outcome tools. The winning approach: prep early, cite the right factors, give the court progress today, and be tactically honest about timing. Misjudge it and you risk exclusion, wasted costs, or worse; judge it well and you protect fairness without feeding delay.

For more information or to book a place on a forthcoming course, please visit legal-eagle-training.com.

Chapters

• 00:00 Welcome & why adjournments decide cases
• 04:50 The Picton/CPD test—what benches actually weigh
• 10:45 Absent defendants & medical proof (s.11 MCA 1980)
• 15:40 Make progress today: disclosure, summonses, narrowing issues
• 20:10 First listing: don’t be bounced into contested notices
• 26:00 Fault & wasted costs: when late service bites
• 29:00 Court’s own motion to adjourn (even if nobody asks)
• 33:40 Boardman mindset: timing your applications - R v Boardman [2015] EWCA Crim 175
• 38:10 Part-heard pitfalls in the mags
• 44:30 Motoring: timing for exceptional hardship
• 47:40 Legal-issue-only trials (no adjournment needed)
• 49:55 Newton hearings: when to adjourn (and when not)
• 51:40 Adjourn vs. unconditional bail on requisition cases
• 54:20 Youth/adult severance & listing realities
• 57:20 Fees update & wrap

Keywords

adjournment, Criminal Procedure Rules, Practice Directions, Picton factors, section 11 MCA 1980, absent defendant, late disclosure, exclusion of evidence, wasted costs, Boardman, part-heard trials, Newton hearing, exceptional hardship, totting, youth court, severance, case management