summary offence

"If they've had drugs and they're behind a wheel, that's a summary offence - I have no power to deal with it," he says.

In the past, the offence of sedition was classified as a summary offence that would be handled by a lower court magistrate alone, without a jury.

The 2014 Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act defined "low-value shoplifting" as a summary offence, which meant police forces decided they would no longer investigate thefts from shops of a value under £200.

Overall, participating in protests usually count as a summary offence, which is less than a misdemeanor.

Howard Weitzman, Mr Bieber's lawyer in California, said the entertainer was innocent and that he expected the case to be treated as a summary offence, which is the equivalent of a misdemeanour in the United States.