MAGISTRATES
Justices of the Peace (JP)
2013/2014
Magistrates deal with both civil and criminal matters.
There are about 30,000 lay magistrates in England & Wales operating within some 700 or so magistrates courts in England.
They are unpaid volunteers who sit on a part time basis for a minimum of 26 half days per year.
These magistrates have the power to hear and decide a wide variety of legal matters and the amount and the importance of the work should not be underestimated. 97% of all criminal cases are dealt with by the magistrate’s court.
What type of cases do they deal with?
What is the max sentence they can give?
APPOINTMENT/SELECTION
1)Under the JUSTICES OF THE PEACE ACT 1979, magistrates are appointed and removed from office by the Lord Chancellor on behalf of the Queen
2)They do this after consultation with LOCAL ADVISORY COMMITTEES
3)About 1,500 new lay magistrates are appointed each year.
4)To try and encourage a wide range of potential candidates committees have advertised for individuals to put themselves forward with adverts being placed in local papers or newspapers aimed at particular ethnic groups. The intention is to create a panel that is representative of all aspects of society.
The Employment Rights Act 1996 states that employers are obliged to release their employees, for such time as is reasonable, to permit them to serve as magistrates.
In the event of an employer refusing to sanction such absences from work to perform magistrate’s duties the employee can take the matter
before an Employment tribunal.
However, there is no legal right for the employer to pay the employee in their absence, but magistrates are entitled to claim expenses for loss of earnings in the exercise of their office.
QUALIFICATIONS
There are few formal qualifications except:
1)
2)
3)
EXCLUSIONS
1) / 2)3) / 4)
5) / 6)
SIX KEY QUALITIES
The Lord Chancellor in 1998issued a clear job description for magistrates, it also set out 6 key qualities for appointing someone to the role of magistrate:
1) / 2)3) / 4)
5) / 6)
Once candidates of a suitable quality have been identified, the local advisory committee has to ensure that the composition of the bench broadly reflects the community, which it serves, in terms of gender, ethnic origin, occupation, geographical spread and political affiliation.
It may be that individual may not be appointed if their presence would exacerbate a perceived in balance in the existing bench.
COMPOSITION OF THE BENCH TODAY
∑The aim of the selection process is to create a panel that is representative of all aspects of society: A balanced mix of age, race, political views, and occupations HOWEVER lay magistrates are drawn overwhelmingly from professional & managerial ranks. The majority support the conservative party. Most are 45-65 years old
∑Approx. 40% are retired.
∑The young and working class are under-represented.
∑However, currently magistrates do not represent all aspects of society — but it is unlikely that they ever could: given that they need to commit to giving up their time, unpaid, to sit in court for a minimum of 26 times a year, and attend training: not everyone can afford to do so; even if they wanted to.
∑Therefore, the comment that magistrates are : "middle-classed, middle-minded & middle-aged". It would seem that these are the people who can afford and wish to apply to be a magistrate. Mags under 40 are rare
∑However in other respects the bench is well balanced, with 50% of Mags being women (only 12% of judges are women) ethnic minorities are also well represented with over 7% from ethnic minorities (less than 2%of judges)
INTERVIEW PROCESS
There is usually a 2 stage interview process:
1)The board will try to find out if the candidate has the 6 key qualities required (pg2)
2)The second is to test the candidates’ judicial aptitude this will be done by a discussion of 2 case studies typical of those heard regularly in the Mags court.
The ADVISORY COMMITTEE (see pg1) will interview candidates & submit names of those they feel suitable to the Lord Chancellor.
TRAINING
No knowledge of the law is required & no legal qualifications but they do receive some training to prepare them for sitting in court.
THE JUDICIAL STUDIES BOARD oversees magistrates training.
The actual training is carried out in local areas sometimes through the clerk of the court sometimes through weekend courses organised by universities.
The guidelines for training are found in the Magistrates National Training Initiative 2004 (MNTI 2). Under this scheme magistrates had to achieve 4 basic competencies,
THESE ARE:
1)
2)
3)
4)
TRAINING OF NEW MAGISTRATES
There is a syllabus for new magistrates which is divided into two parts.
These are:
Initial introductory training:
Roles and responsibilities of those involved in the Magistrates’ Court.
Activities:
These will involve observations of court sittings and visits to establishments such as a prison or probation office.
MENTORS
Each new magistrate has a mentor (an experiences magistrate) to assist them.
WINGERS
After the core training & observing cases, a new magistrate will sit as a ‘winger’ to hear cases. This means that they will be one of a panel of three. The Chairman who sits in the middle is very experienced & the magistrates who sit on either side of him are known as ‘wingers’
Appraisal
During the first 2 years of the new magistrate sitting in court, between 8 and 11 of the sessions will be MENTORED. In the same period the magistrate is also expected to attend about 7 training sessions.
After about 2 years there will be an appraisal to check if they have acquired the competencies. If yes they are fully competent.
Following appointment they are appraised every 3 years. Further training must be given if they are to sit in FAMILY (civil) or YOUTH COURTS (criminal)
RETIREMENT AND REMOVAL
Magistrates usually have to retire at 70, they do not officially retire instead their names are placed on a supplement list.
This means that they can no longer sit in the court but they carry out some administrative functions mainly connected with signing documents:
Eg,
They may be compulsory retired before this, if because of age or infirmity, they cannot do their job, or if they neglect to do so.
They will also be removed:
1)On the grounds of incapacity or misbehaviour
Up to now removal for misbehaviour usually occurs when a magistrate gets a criminal conviction but in the past they have been removed for transvestite behaviour Removal from the bench for these reasons has been criticised.
2)Declining or neglecting to take a proper part in his role as a magistrate
JURISDICTION– What do they do?
CRIMINAL LAW
The main functions of a Magistrate are:
1)PRE-TRIAL HEARING FOR ALL OFFENCES– GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY / 2)SENTENCING
Summary & EWO trials
3)SUMMARY & EWO TRIAL
They decide the facts & APPLY THE LAW / 4)PLEA BEFORE VENUE FOR EWO
Mode of trial hearing
5)Committal for EWO cases to the Crown Court for trial / 6)Refer EWO to Crown for sentencing
7)JUVENILE JURISDICTION in youth court / 8)DECIDE BAIL between pre-trial hearing & trial whether trial in MAGS or CROWN
9)Sit on appeals in Crown from Magistrate’s court with a judge / 10)Give permission for police to increase length of detention when questioning from 60-96 hours
11)Sign warrants of arrest & search warrants for police / 12)
MAGISTRATES’ CLERK
Each bench of lay magistrates is assisted by a magistrate’s clerk, who has been a qualified solicitor or barrister for 5 years.
The magistrates turn to him for advice on questions of law, practice and procedure.
Their role is set out in s28 of the Justices Of the Peace Act 1979.
The clerk is not meant to assist in the decision-making and should not normally retire with the magistrates when they go to make their decision:
R V ECCLES JUSTICES EX PARTE FARRELLY 1992
DISTRICT JUDGES (Magistrates courts)
These are not lay people but are qualified lawyers who can sit on their own they have the same powers as a bench of lay magistrates.
They must have had at least 5 years post-qualification experience.
They are chosen from practising barristers or solicitors. They are appointed to city courts.
ADVANTAGES OF LAY MAGISTRATES COMPARED TO LEGALLY QUALIFIED JUDGES
1)PROVIDE ACROSS SECTION OF SOCIETY
2)LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
3) COST
4)TRAINING
5)ADVICE OF THE CLERK
6) FEW APPEALS
7) TRIAL BY PEERS
8) REPRESENTING THE COMMUNITY
DISADVANTAGES OF LAY MAGISTRATES
1)INCONSISTENCIES IN SENTENCING
2) TRAINING
3)PROSECUTION BIAS
4)MIDDLE-AGED,MIDDLE-CLASS
5)RELIANCE ON THE CLERK
6)COMPLEXITY OF LEGAL ISSUES
1
Rec/Subjects/Law/Magistrates/jv/mj