A defendant can enter a plea at the committal appearance in the Magistrates Court.

If a defendant pleads guilty at the committal appearance, the magistrate may either determine and impose a sentence on the defendant, or commit the defendant to a higher court for sentencing [Criminal Procedure Act 1921 (SA) s 110].

If a defendant does not plead guilty, the matter will be adjourned to an answer charge hearing . The DPP must prepare a committal brief, file it in the Magistrates Court and provide it to the defendant (or their lawyer) as soon as possible after filing [s 111(3)]. The committal briefshould contain documents including witness statements, evidentiary material, any statement of the defendant (including any audio visual recording of that statement) and all other relevant material to the charge [s 111(1)]. The DPP must file the committal brief at least 4 weeks prior to the answer charge hearing [Criminal Procedure Act 1921 (SA) s 111]. The committal brief must be filed and served in the prescribed form, either in electronic form (Form 71e Evidentiary Material Brief) or in physical (hard copy) form (Form 71h Evidentiary Material Brief). Unless the court orders otherwise, evidentiary material brief will generally be required to be filed and served in electronic form (see Joint Criminal Rules 2022 (SA) r 82.3].

Special provisions apply to witness statements included in the committal brief where the witness is:

[See Criminal Procedure Act 1921 (SA) s 111(5), (6).]

If the matter relates to a child sexual offence by a young offender, the alleged victim cannot be required to give oral evidence for the purposes of the committal proceedings (except in the form of an audio-visual record) [see Young Offenders Act 1993 (SA) s 19A].

If the parties are negotiating at this stage, the defendant may ask for the matter to be called on in the Magistrates Court at any time within 4 weeks after the committal appearance to enter a guilty plea using Form 52 (Request to Have Matter Called on for Guilty Plea) [Criminal Procedure Act 1921 (SA) s 110(3)]. For the purposes of sentencing, the defendant will be treated in the same way as if they had pleaded guilty at the committal appearance, and the same sentencing discounts may be applied [s 110(3)].