Process and Selection of Magistrates Question

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Magistrates are lay persons that decide on cases in courts without having legal knowledge.

Process of selection of magistrates

Magistrates are appointed by the Lord Chancellor on the recommendation of the committee after being interviewed.  Candidates would first go through a 2 stage interview process that tests their personal attributes and potential judicial aptitude through discussion of cases. They would need to possess the 6 key qualities that Lord Chancellor laid down which are: Good Character, Sound Judgement, Maturity, Understanding, Social Awareness, and Commitment.  This ensures they are able to have judgelike qualities and are able to assimilate factual information to make reasoned decisions.zl

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The few qualifications for Magistrates is that they must be 18-65 years old and that they have to live in close proximity to the local justice area in which they are allocated. This enables magistrates to be from all walks of society as it includes various types of people and anyone of any occupation, gender, race can volunteer to be a magistrate. However, certain classes of people such as policemen, armed forces, undischarged bankrupts etc are forbidden to apply. This do restricts some people and magistrates could no longer claim to be a representative of the society.

Although the requirements ...

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