On s'entend sur le fait que les procès sommaires ont pour but de régler les dossiers les moins importants — des infractions mineures, des choses de ce type —, mais la Criminal Lawyers' Association craint surtout qu'une personne soumise à un procès sommaire soit victime de stigmatisation et que la constitution d'un casier judiciaire ait des effets à long terme pour cette personne après son service, affectant sa mobilité, sa capacité de voyager et ses possibilités d'emploi, si on ne lui accorde pas les protections procédurales normalement accordées à un accusé dans le système civil.
It is understood that summary trials are meant to deal with matters that are of the least significance—minor offences and that type of thing—but the primary concern of the Criminal Lawyers' Association in particular is that an individual who is undergoing a summary trial procedure can be subject to the stigma and the long-lasting effect of a criminal record that may follow that individual outside of their life in the service, affecting their mobility, their ability to travel, and their employment, when the procedural safeguards that a person accused in the civil system would normally enjoy are not in place.