lay magistrates and juries

• How are Magistrates courts lay out?


  Courtroom, bench, witness stand, dock, public gallery, and legal representatives' seating area. The people there include: witnesses, 3 magistrates, 1 clerk of the court/ legal advisor, lawyers for both the prosecution and defence, a court usher, the defendant and more.
• Figures for Magistrates and problems

  • 12,661 as of 2020
  • Male- 44%, Female- 56%, White- 87%, BAME- 13%, 60+- 49%, under 30- 1%
  • There's no problems with sex/ethnicity but the age is an issue. It's most likely you will be judged by an older, middle class person.
  • Many mags are case hardened- may be an issue when they're dealing with 95% of cases
• What groups are particularly welcome to apply to become Magistrates?

  Black and minority ethnic communities, people under 50, from non-managerial or professional occupations, disabled but can carry out the duties of a Magistrate. This is because these groups are underrepresented.
• What qualifications do magistrates need?Therefore, who supports them in court?


  None, a HMCTS legal advisor can support them.
• Six key qualities of Magistrates

  • Good Character
  • Understanding and communication
  • social awareness
  • maturity and sound temperament
  • sound judgement
  • commitment and reliability
• What's the maximum sentence a magistrate can give?

  Six months imprisonment for a single offence (12 months max), a fine of up to £5000 or a community sentence.
• Basic eligibility criteria?

  1. At least 18
  2. Cannot be over 65 as retirement is at 70
  3. British nationality isn't required as long as they're willing to take oath of Allegiance to the Crown
  4. Asylum seekers are ineligible
  5. Criminal convictions don't necessarily bar you from becoming a magistrate
• What must be declared when applying and which professions might mean you can't be a magistrate?

  • Past convictions, cautions, civil orders
  • Police officer, local authority employees on cases involving employer, if your spouse works in H.M prisons
• Why are so many magistrates over 60?

  They are retired and don't have to commit to jobs in the day
• How many times must a magistrate sit over the course of a year?

  13 full sittings per year (or 26 half day sittings)
• Candidates for the magistracy will need to fill in an application form and provide three referees. If they match eligibility criteria, they'll proceed to interview
• What happens at the first stage interview?

  You will talk about the contents of your application and general topics like social issues. The mandatory good character and background question is asked and the 6 key characteristics are being checked here. It only lasts for 30-45 minutes.
• What happens at a second stage interview?

  This interview is aimed primarily at assessing judicial aptitude which means checking if you have legal reasoning and not just having mere legal knowledge. You will discuss a fictional case study and the 6 key characteristics are checked again.
• Reasons people might want to become magistrates

  • fulfilling a vital service in the local community
  • opportunity to work with others
  • learn new skills
  • educate others on roles of a magistrate
  • meet new friends from all parts of the community
• What is the training of a magistrate based on?

  Their competences: a checklist of knowledge/ observable behaviour that magistrates need to demonstrate to successfully fill the role.

  1. Managing yourself- before the hearing (preparing for the role in the judicial process, in the court room (conducting yourself effectively in the court), engaging in ongoing learning and development
  2. Working as a team- making a contribution to decision-making, contributing to the working of the team
  3. Making judicial decisions- using appropriate processes to facilitate effective decision-making, impartial decisions
• Training of magistrates in the first year

  1. Introductory training- before sitting in court they must undergo mandatory training to learn more about their duties
  2. Mentoring- new mags are assigned to a specially trained mentor, there's 6 formal mentored sittings in the first year where the new mags process and training needs are reviewed
  3. Initial core training- an induction course to give them enough knowledge to sit in court and in year 1 there'll be visits to penal institutions and court observations to supplement this
• Training magistrates in the first year

  4. Consolidation training- at the end of the first year, consolidation training helps mags plan their ongoing development and prepare for their first appraisal

  5. First appraisal- 12-18 months after appointment the new mag is appraised by a mag who's been specifically trained and will sit on the bench and observe whether the new mag successfully demonstrates the competences
• Ongoing training and developments of magistrates?

  • appraisals occur every 4 yrs (2 for presiding justices)
  • continuation training- requirement of 6 hours every 3 years, delivered in a variety of ways depending on region to region
  • update training on new legislation and procedures is delivered as required
  • other introductory training takes place as required eg for when a mag wishes to sit in the family or youth courts
• Who are the Judicial College?

  They have an overall responsibility for training mags including producing training resources and workbooks, plus the provision face to face training
• The Magistrates Association's involvement in training includes:

  • local branch training- some local MA branches provide 'contextual and awareness training' sessions on issues of importance
  • promoting quality in training nationally- the MA works closely with Judicial College to provide resources for the Judicial Learning Management System
  • developing courses and learning material- the MA produces new training courses and learning materials for the benefit of all magistrates
• Juries are mainly used in Crown where they decide the innocence or guilt of the defendant in criminal cases. As most criminal cases are heard in the Magistrates Court, the use of juries is limited to around 4-5% of all criminal trials. Once the jury's sworn in, their job is to listen to the questions of both the prosecution and defence barristers and to consider all the evidence in the case. The judge can sometimes give the jury instructions or guidance on the law but he cannot tell them what to vote. This is because the jury is independent from the judge as decided in Bushell's case (1670).
• Juries are a fundamental part of our criminal justice system, hearing approximately how many cases a year?

  30,000
• Where does trial by your peers and the independence of the jury come from?

  Trial by your peers- Magna Carta 1215, Jury independence- Bushell's case 1670
• What's the standard of proof in a criminal case?

  Juries are asked if they are 'sure' but the standard is 'beyond reasonable doubt'
• If the jury fail to reach a unanimous decision what can they do?

  They can direct the jury to make a majority verdict if they've failed to reach a unanimous decision after a 'reasonable period of time'
• How is eligibility for being a jury decided?

  The Juries Act 1974, amended by the Criminal Justice Act 2003. You must be 18-75; registered on the electoral register; resident in the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man for at least 5 years since the age of 13; not mentally disordered and not disqualified due to previous criminal convictions. You are disqualified if the prison term was 10 or more years, or if you've had one in the last 10 years, or if you're on bail.
• Who can be excused from jury service?

  Full time members of the armed forces
• Anyone can apply to defer their jury duty. What are some reasons for deferral?

  Examinations, having a holiday booked, wedding, surgery etc. It can be deferred once and must be taken within a 12 month period of the deferral.
• What did the Criminal Justice Act 2003 amend about the Juries Act 1974?

  Certain people in essential occupations were able to be excused (doctors, lawyers, police, clergy and judiciary) but this meant that juries were not representative of society. This was amended- everyone must do jury duty unless they're ineligible.
• Juries are randomly selected and will receive a summons in the post. This is a legal document so you must arrive at court on your allotted day. once in the court buildings, you will wait to be called. Up to 15 people will be randomly called into court. From there, 12 will be randomly selected to sit on the jury.
• Individual jurors can be vetted prior to attending court. Jury vetting involves:

  • routine police checks to eliminate disqualified jurors
  • a wider check on jurors background and political affiliations
• What happens to jurors in cases of national security or terrorism?

  Checks by security services can be carried out by permission of the Attorney General where it's a realistic danger that a juror's political beliefs are biased or extreme.
• What do the prosecution and defence have the right to do once the court clerk has selected the panel of 12 jurors?

  They can challenge the array- where the whole jury is challenged possibly because of evidence that its been chosen in a bias way. They can challenge for cause- they can point and say they don't want that person possibly because of something known about them eg D is black and a juror is racist.
• What happens at a criminal trail?

  • The court clerk reads the indictment
  • the prosecution presents evidence (evidence in chief)
  • the defence are questioned in a cross examination
  • The Judge keeps the trial on course and addresses any issues in the law
• What is the Contempt of Court Act 1981?

  The deliberations of the jury must be kept secret, any breach of this is a criminal offence. S8 forbids the jury from disclosing anything about what was said or done during deliberations.
• What can jurors not do once deliberations have started?

  Can't speak of the case or issues raised with anyone except the other jurors. You can't google related cases or anything about the case or share it on social media.
• What is the problem with the rules on jury deliberations?

  They can't be enforced and as nearly anyone can be a juror they will be normal citizens that might not understand the importance of retaining the privacy of the case. With the internet it's very difficult to stop information spreading or stop yourself seeing related cases that may accidently come up on your feed.
• Key cases for the jury system

  • Danvers- random selection of the jury cannot be challenged unless there is bias eg not because of skin colour
  • Blythe- where jury choose 'morally right, legally wrong', the judge couldn't influence the juries decision
  • Broderick- can't consider enforcing a full black jury as randomly selected
  • Fricker- D must be able to have the opportunity to provide an explanation for evidence, therefore the jurors expert knowledge cannot be allowed to be taken into account
  • Kelleher- a judge cannot direct a jury to return a guilty verdict- jury equity
• Key cases for juries

  • Kray- jurors can still be unprejudiced if he is still able to see the case impartially
  • Owen- the jury can ignore the law and ignore the judge (jury equity)
  • Ponting- jury equity
  • Tarrant- a judge has no power to interfere in the random selection of the jury panel
  • Wilson, Kronlid, Needham, Zeltna- jury equity
  • YOUNG- the secrecy of jury deliberations is sacrosanct, the danger of this secrecy the case highlights is that nobody would've known if they'd used the Ouija board in the jury room- they could be doing anything
• Why is it important that the jury deliberations are kept secret?

  So the jurys decisions don't get linked to them and they don't get targeted