# The Courts-Martial (Royal Navy) Rules 1997, Article 25: Pre-trial hearing


(1) The judge advocate may request the court administration officer to order a hearing to take place at the court-martial before the commencement of the trial of an accused—
(a) of his own motion; or
(b) on the application of the prosecutor or accused for such a hearing;
and such a hearing shall in these Rules be referred to as a pre-trial hearing.
(2) An application for a pre-trial hearing shall—
(a) be made to the judge advocate in the form set out in Schedule 2 to these Rules; and
(b) specify the reason for which it is made.
(3) An applicant shall serve notice in writing of the application with a time estimate of the length of the pre-trial hearing on every other party to the proceedings and the court administration officer.
(4) Before requesting the court administration officer to order a pre-trial hearing, the judge advocate shall afford each party to the proceedings the opportunity of making written representations to him.
(5) Paragraph (4) above shall not oblige the judge advocate to afford any party the opportunity of making representations where it appears to him that it would be impracticable to do so, or would cause unnecessary delay.
(6) On receipt of a request from the judge advocate under paragraph (1) above, the court administration officer shall—
(a) issue an order assembling the court-martial; or
(b) if the order assembling that court-martial has already been issued, amend that order;
so that the order shall specify—
(i) the date and time at which the pre-trial hearing before the judge advocate shall take place; and
(ii) the date and time at which the members of the court other than the judge advocate shall assemble for the trial.
(7) Nothing in this rule shall prevent the judge advocate from ordering a pre-trial hearing after the full court has assembled.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1997/170/article/25 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/courts-martial-royal-navy-rules-1997/article-25
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.