14: Lay Magistrates

• Lay People = ordinary people in society who participate in the legal system without legal qualifications
• Magistracy = 2-3 people in a panel
• Lord Chancellor set out 6 qualities that lay magistrate candidates must possess:

  1. Good character
  2. Understanding and communication
  3. Social awareness
  4. Maturity and sound temperament
  5. Sound judgement
  6. Commitment and reliability
• Lay Magistrates Requirements:

  • Aged 18-65 (only 4% under 40)
  • Prepared to commit to sitting in court for at least 26 half days each year
  • Live within/near justice area
• Restrictions on appointment:

  • With serious criminal convictions
  • Undischarged bankruptcy
  • Members of the armed force
  • Police officers/traffic wardens
  • Those with relatives in the criminal justice system
  • Those in the process at seeking asylum
  • People with hearing impaired of have a disability that can impede them from carrying on their role
• Appointment of Magistrates:

  • Appointment made by Lord Chancellor on behalf of the king
  • To decide who to appoint, the Lord Chancellor relies on recommendations made to him by the Local Advisory Committee
  • Adverts placed in newspapers, websites, etc, to create a panel that represents society
• Local Advisory Committee:

  • 109 advisory committees across the country
  • Maximum of 12 members per committee, mixture of magistrates and non-magistrates
• Interview Stages:

  1. The panel finds out more about the candidate's personal attributes and tries to see if the candidate has the 6 key characteristics. Also explores candidates views on various criminal issues
  2. Testing candidate's judicial ability by discussing 2+ cases that are typically heard at the Magistrates Court, discussing the type of sentence that should be given
  3. Advisory Committee submits suitable candidates names to Lord Chancellor who then appoints from the list
• Composition of the bench

  According to the Judiciary in the Magistrates Court 2002 Report, lay magistrates:

  • were often drawn from professional and managerial ranks
  • Approximately 40% of them were retired from full-time employment

  The bench became balanced in 2009:

  • Approx 50% of magistrates were women
  • Over 7% of magistrates from ethnic minorities (as a result of campaigns to attract a wider range e.g Lord Chancellors major campaign March 1999, adverts in Caribbean Times, Muslim News)
• Training of Magistrates:

  • Is supervised by the Magistrates Committee of the Judicial Studies Board, who draws up a syllabus of topics (the court clerk carries out training)
  • Since 1998 magistrates training has been monitored more closely as they were previously criticised that there were no assessments of how much they had understood
• Stages of Magistrate Training:

  1. Induction = lectures, visits to courts/prisons
  2. Practical training 199 Magistrates New Training Initiative introduced and reformed in 2004 = Now, Magistrates are provided with a mentor to assist them, and they keep a personal development log of their progress
  3. Framework of training divided into 4 areas of competence: Managing yourself, working as a member of a team, making judicial decisions, managing judicial decision-making
• Magistrates duties:

  • Sit in groups of 3. The chair (middle) talks and is in charge of the conduct of the trial. On either side are the wingers
  • Magistrates mainly have criminal jurisdiction (authority)
  • Magistrates are the 'backbone of the criminal justice system' because they deal with 97% of all criminal cases
• Magistrates Criminal Jurisdiction:

  • Magistrates deal with preliminary hearings (EAH, bail, plea before venue)
  • Deal with trials of summary/triable either way offences
• Magistrates Civil Jurisdiction:

  • Enforcing debts owed to utility companies
  • Enforcing council tax debts
  • Non-payments of TV license
• Retirement of Magistrates:

  • Retirement is age 70, but after 70 they can be placed on the supplemental list to be eligible to apply for reinstatement (work from 70-75)
  • Can continue to carry out administrative functions
• Removal of Magistrates:

  S11 of the Courts Act 2003 gives power to Lord Chancellor to remove a lay magistrate:

  • Incapacity/misbehaviour
  • Fails to meet standards of competence
  • If neglecting to take proper part in their function
• Lay Magistrates Advantages and Disadvanatges

  Advantages:

  • Cross section of society
  • Local knowledge
  • Cost
  • Legal advisor

  Disadvantages:

  • Middle aged/class
  • Prosecution bias
  • Inconsistency in sentencing
  • Too much reliance on the court clerk