The lay magistrates are also not required to know any prior legal knowledge. The emphasis is on selecting people who have the right personal qualities and on trying to ensure that the bench in the court reflects that of its community it serves.
Under the Employment Rights Act 1996, employers are legally obliged to allow employees reasonable time off to serve as magistrates, although they are not obliged to pay them. National companies are in a much better position to give employees paid time off work than small organisations, which if they do give time off will not always pay them. However lay magistrates can claim allowances for travel or even a small amount for loss of pay.
Finally however before candidates can become lay magistrates there is an interview process in which the candidates have to go through. There are two stages to this interview, first of Is, the first interview which is where the panel of judges try to find out more about the person and his attributes. After that then it goes to a second interview, at the second interview, the panel aim to test the candidate potential judicial aptitude by discussing a couple of cases studies with them.
- b.
Outline the range of duties undertaken by lay magistrates. Comment on how well Lay magistrates carry out this valuable role?
Lay Magistrates also known as 'Lay Justices' or 'Justices of the Peace'. There are over 60,000 Lay Magistrates in England and Wales. They undertake a range of duties and are considered to be very important as 97% of court cases begin and end in the Magistrates Court. These 97% are summary trials, which are only tried in the Magistrates Court, and are minor offences. These offences are offences that are not indictable such as rape, murder, manslaughter, robbery, and GBH but are a lot less serious crimes such as driving without insurance, taking a vehicle without consent, and common assault. This is their main duty as they run the trial, decide the verdict and decide the sentences. They do this by deciding if the defendant is guilty or not guilty once hearing both parties’ cases. Of the remaining 3% of all criminal cases they deal wit preliminary hearings. This will involve; remand hearings, bail applications etc.
Lay magistrates are unpaid volunteers, who work in the magistrates court, but this is not there job, this is a part time job that some people take time off work to complete. Magistrates sit in magistrate’s court, usually in a bench of three.
Lay magistrates take on a number of duties during there work in the courts, these are; Most of their work in the court is criminal hearings, such as trying and sentencing summary offences, those which serve 6 months like assault or battery, some triable either way offences. They also have bail hearings; issue warrants and commit indictable offences, such as GBH, to the Crown court. All criminal offences begin in the magistrates court, 97% are tried in this court. This shows most offences in the country are petty crimes.
The magistrate’s court does have the power to give 6-month sentence and a fine up to £5000. They also have some civil responsibilities such as enforcement of council tax debts. They have some work in the family courts panel, relating to breakdown of marriages. They are responsible for granting licenses on alcohol, gambling and entertainment. Some courts specialise in the Youth court, for offenders aged 10-17 and protection orders in the Family Court. Lay magistrates provide a broad cross-section of society in the justice system and promote fairness in the justice system. They also have the job of accompanying judges hearing appeals in the crown court.
The majority of magistrates are middle-aged Tory voters, however 49% are women, compared with the 6% of women judges. They are people with local knowledge and so act in the interests of justice with this. The lay magistrates are not legally qualified but do a good job, as 1.5 million cases were dealt with in 1998, only 16,000 were subject to appeal to the Crown court against a sentence or conviction. They are free and so provide the cheapest labour to the justice system. If they were replaced with full-time magistrates it would cost an extra £100 million a year.
Lay magistrates normally do a good job as they receive quiet intense training to become a lay magistrate in the courts. They complete there training while still at work until they pass as a lay magistrates and then they have to sit more than 26 times a year in the magistrates’ court. In the first 2 years a newly appointed lay magistrate must have a mentor sitting with them 11 times in the 2 years, just to make sure they are completing there job to a high and respectable standard. Because of this intense training that they go though they have a good understanding of their job and the laws that they need when they finally sit down in the magistrates court. Also with the criteria that they have to meet before becoming a lay magistrate it just shows that not just anyone can do It u need people that are not villains not from another country that will be biased and not just overall biased and one sided. So on the whole the lay magistrates in the untied kingdom do a very good job.
However the training of the magistrates has been criticised to be inadequate for the workload they receive. The variations in the sentences given according to locality have been subject to questions.
People thought that for the workload that the magistrates have to put up with there should be harder and more vigorous training. This way magistrate will be even better and more able to give fairer sentences in the court.
The magistrates were found to be inconsistent with their sentences. In 1990 it was found that you were twice as likely to go to prison in Greater Manchester than in Merseyside. This goes to show there in inconsistence thought the Britain with the lay magistrates and some can be a lot harsher than others, it is up to them what verdict they give and what sentencing. But on the whole lay magistrates do a good and professional job.
