Criminal Courts and Lay People

Types of offences
1. Inditable Offences
  Annotations:
  - Tried at Crown Court (serious crimes such as murder
2. Summary Offences
  Annotations:
  - Only tried at magistrates court (lesser offences)
3. Either way Offences
  Annotations:
  - Can be tried at either court (Crown and Magistrates)
The Role of Magistrates
1. Try all Summary offences
2. They decide what the sentence should be imposed against D and if they have enough power for sentencing
3. Maximum sentencing powers is 6 months imprisonment (12 for 2 or more offences)
4. Deal with all first hearings for inditable offences
5. They can issue arrest warrants or such warrents to the police
6. Decide whether D should recieve bail or now
Qualification of Magistrates
1. Candidates must be aged between 18 and 65
2. Must sit in court a minimum of 26 weeks
3. They should have the 6 key qualities
  1. Good character
  2. Understanding and communitcation
  3. Social awareness
  4. Maturity and sound temperament
  5. Sound judgement
  6. Commitment and reliability
Selection of Magistrates
1. 1. Local advisory committees advertise for individuals in the community to apply
2. 2. Two interviews by local advisory committees
  Annotations:
  - i) The first interview is to assess the attitudes and personality of the individual. (The six qualities) ii) The second is practical with sentencing exercises to see if they have the judicial qualities.
  1. Practical
  2. Attitudes and personality
3. 3. The committees will reccommend suitable people to the lord chief justice for appointment
Appointment of Magistrates
1. The Lord Chief Justice or their delegate will appoint from a list of recommended candidates
2. Aims to have a fair balanced membership
  Annotations:
  - Balance of gender, ethnicity and occupations
3. Background checks are carried out
4. An oath of allegiance must be sworn at a ceremony
Problems with Magistrates
1. Middle-class, Middle-aged and middle-minded'
2. There are few young magistrates
3. Most are Conservative
4. Most come from professional or middle class occupations
Magistrate Training
1. Initial training
  Annotations:
  - Introductory training on the basics of the role
2. Mentoring
  Annotations:
  - Each magistrate has their own person mentor to guide them through their first months
3. Core training
  Annotations:
  - Over first year, visits to prisons, your offender institutes and observations of other magistrates to equip new magistrates with key knowledge
4. Consolidation training
  Annotations:
  - Second year, builds on their core training and helps magistrates plan for their ongoing development and prepare for their first appraisal
5. First appraisal
  Annotations:
  - When the mentor and magistrate feel they are ready they are given a chance to take a hearing. When successful the magistrate is regarded competent
Advantages and Disadvantages of Magistrates
1. Advantages
  Annotations:
  - 1. Creates public confidence because they are being tried by an 'ordinary person' 2. Provide a wider cross-section of society than judges (e.g 52% of magistrates are women) 3. They have aid from a legal adviser to guide magistrates on necessary points of law. Which causes decisions to be made through common sense
2. Disadvantages
  Annotations:
  - 1. Argued that magistrates have no knowledge of poorer areas due to them being mostly middle class. 2. Criticised for being middle class and middle minded with only 15% being under 50 years old. 3. Magistrates in different areas may pass different sentences for similar offences which causes inconsistency.

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Criminal Courts and Lay People

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	Created by Ewan Batley almost 8 years ago