DATA ELEMENTS AND DATA ELEMENT CONCEPTS
FINAL PLEA
IDENTIFYING AND DEFINITIONAL ATTRIBUTES
Metadata type:
DATA ELEMENT Version: 1
Definition:
The last plea entered by a defendant in relation to a criminal charge that is laid against them in a court.
Context:
Information on the Final Plea(s) entered by a defendant can provide an indication of the number of trials that actually took place within a court level and the use of court resources.
A major factor governing the processing time required for a case is whether or not a trial or defended hearing was required. In general, a defended hearing will require significantly greater amounts of court hearing time than a hearing of a guilty plea. Information obtained from both initial and final pleas can provide an indication of the number of defendants who have maintained or changed their plea during court proceedings.
RELATIONAL AND REPRESENTATIONAL ATTRIBUTES
Datatype:
Numeric
Field size:
Min: 2 Max: 2
Representational form:
Code
Representational layout:
NN
Data domain:
The plea classification has three major categories separating plea on the basis of whether or not the defendant defends the charge(s) against them or the charges were non-adjudicated. Codes are provided to distinguish between the levels in the hierarchy and can be used to assist with data entry and/or output purposes.
10 Undefended n.f.d.
20 Defended n.f.d.
21 Not guilty plea
22 No plea
23 Plea reserved
24 Other defended plea n.e.c.
30 Not applicable n.f.d.
31 Withdrawn by prosecution
39 Not applicable n.e.c.
99 Unknown/Not stated
Guide for use:
Undefended refers to where the defendant does not contest the charge(s) laid against them.
Defended refers to where the defendant will contest the charge(s) laid against them.
The Not applicable n.f.d. category only applies to defendants with non-adjudicated finalisations.
More detailed definitions of the types of pleas can be found in the glossary.
Only one plea code may be applied to each defendant in a particular court level. National coding rules (see below) are applied to determine the appropriate plea code to be assigned when the defendant has multiple charges that have different pleas.
1. If a defendant is finalised by the Method of Finalisation Defendant deceased (Code 310) or Unfit to plead (Code 330) then code the Final Plea for the defendant to Not applicable n.e.c. (Code 39).
2. If a defendant has multiple charges which all have exactly the same plea, then the Final Plea for the defendant is the same as the plea code shared by the multiple charges.
3. If the plea to each charge is Undefended/Guilty (Codes 10-11), then the Final Plea for the defendant is Undefended n.f.d. (Code 10).
4. If the plea to one or more charges is Defended/Not Guilty (Codes 20-24), then the Final Plea for the defendant is Defended n.f.d. (Code 20).
5. If a defendant has multiple charges which are finalised by a combination of a non-adjudicated Method of Finalisation of Withdrawn by Prosecution (Code 340) or Other Non-adjudicated Finalisation n.e.c. (Code 390) and an adjudicated Method of Finalisation of Undefended/Guilty (Codes 10-11), then the Final Plea for the defendant is Undefended n.f.d. (Code 10).
6. If all charges are finalised by a non-adjudicated Method of Finalisation of Withdrawn by prosecution (Code 340) or Other non-adjudicated finalisation n.e.c. (Code 390), and at least one of these is Withdrawn by prosecution (Code 340), then the Final Plea for the defendant is Withdrawn by prosecution (Code 31).
7. If all charges are finalised by a non-adjudicated Method of Finalisation of Other non-adjudicated finalisation n.e.c. (Code 390), then the Final Plea for the defendant is Not applicable n.e.c. (Code 39).
Verification rules:
This data element is only applicable to finalised defendants.
All charges for a defendant relating to the one case have been finalised and so have the related data elements Method of Finalisation and Date of Finalisation.
If there is only one plea given in a particular court level, then Final Plea should be the same as Initial Plea.
If Method of Finalisation is Guilty finding by court (Coded to 111), Final Plea must not be Undefended or Guilty (Codes 10-11).
Collection methods:
This information is taken from court process documentation including court bench sheets etc.
Related metadata:
Is related to the data element concept:
Is related to the data element:
Date of Finalisation
Method of Finalisation
Initial Plea
ADMINISTRATIVE ATTRIBUTES
Source document:
1. Higher Criminal Courts Collection Manual
2. Magistrates' Criminal Courts Collection Manual
Source organisation:
1. Australian Bureau of Statistics
2. Australian Bureau of Statistics
History:
Commenced 2005
Comments:
None
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