To qualify to be a lay magistrate, a person needs to be 18-65. They will need to have good judgement, social awareness, commitment and reliability, mature and have good communication. The candidate is expected to live in the local area to which they are allocated. They are expected to be able to serve 26 half days a year and these are not paid.
There are some certain factors that may dissuade the local advisory committee from picking some candidates, these include serious criminal convictions, members of the forces, seriously hearing impaired or too infirm to carry out duties.
The appointment of a new lay magistrate can take upto six to twelve months. This is because the appointment process starts with an application form that the candidate must fill in. This is assessed by the LAC and if accepted the candidate will be called in to have an interview where they will be asked about their views on criminal justice issues. If this process is completed by the candidate, they will do a further interview where they will be shown case studies to show they have potential to be a judge.
If successful in the interview phase, the LAC will recommend the candidate to the Lord Chancellor for consideration.
The bench should show the defendants a degree of diversity of the local community, this includes, wherever possible a mixed bench in terms of gender, ethnicity, occupation and magisterial experience. Magistrates will have access to a legal advisor in the court room, the legal advisor is fully qualified, however cannot influence the final decision on the verdict. If a legal advisor is seen to have influenced the decision (as seen in the case of R-v-Birmingham Magistrates ex parte Ahmed).
After the application and interviews have been accepted by the Lord Chancellor, the candidate must go under 3 days (18 hours) of training. This course of training is designed by the Judicial Studies Board using the Magistrates National Training Unit.
The candidate
