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A summary offence, also known as a petty crime, is a criminal act in some common law jurisdictions that can be proceeded with summarily, without the right to a jury trial and/or indictment.

In the United States, "there are certain minor or petty offenses that may be proceeded against summarily, and without a jury"^[1][2] and which are codified in 18 U.S.C. § 19. Any crime punishable by more than six months imprisonment must have some means for a jury trial.^[3] Contempt of court is considered a prerogative of the court, as "the requirement of a jury does not apply to 'contempts committed in disobedience of any lawful writ, process, order, rule, decree, or command entered in any suit or action brought or prosecuted in the name of, or on behalf of, the United States[.]'"^[4]

Some states (Virginia and New Hampshire) provide that in all offenses must at some point grant to the defendant a jury trial if they request it, meaning that, one could obtain a jury trial in some states even for a parking ticket. Summary offences have a length of time which they are valid on a State's recordkeeping. In most states, summary offences last 5–7 years.

There have been criticisms over the practice. In particular, Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black wrote in a dissent that "[i]t is high time, in my judgment, to wipe out root and branch the judge-invented and judge-maintained notion that judges can try criminal contempt cases without a jury."^[5]

In Canada summary offences are referred to as summary conviction offences. As in other jurisdictions summary conviction offences are considered less serious than indictable offences because they are punishable by shorter prison sentences and smaller fines. These offences appear both in the federal laws of Canada and in the legislation of Canada's provinces and territories. For summary conviction offences that fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government (which includes all criminal law), section 785 of the Criminal Code of Canada specifies that, unless another punishment is provided for by law, the maximum penalty for a summary conviction offence is a sentence of 6 months of imprisonment, a fine of $2000 or both. Section 786 of the Code then goes on to prohibit persons from being tried for a summary conviction offence more than 6 months after the offence was committed unless both the prosecutor and defendant agree otherwise.

In the United Kingdom, trials for summary offences are heard in one of a number of types of lower court. For England and Wales this is the Magistrates' Court. In Scotland, it is the Sheriff Court or District Court, depending on the offence. Northern Ireland has its own Magistrates' Court system (see Courts of Northern Ireland).

1. ^ Callan v. Wilson, 127 U.S. 540 (1888)
2. ^ Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 145 (1968)
3. ^ Lewis v. United States, 518 U.S. 322 (1996)
4. ^ United States v. Barnett, 376 U.S. 681 (1964)
5. ^ Callan v. Wilson, 127 U.S. 540 (1888)

• Indictable offence
• Infraction
• Misdemeanor