Describe the range of duties undertaken by Lay Magistrates.

SECTION 1

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 and if the defendant pleads guilty or is found guilty of an offence then they decide what the sentence should be.

Another duty of a Lay Magistrate is offences triable either way. Where the case is heard lies with the defendant. They are the middle range crimes and include theft, obtaining property by deception and assault causing actual bodily harm. If the defendant wants the case tried at the Magistrates Court, then it will proceed the same way for summary offences with the Lay Magistrates conducting the trial. At the end of the case instead of sentencing the defendant, Magistrates can commit the defendant to the Crown Court for sentence under section 38 of ‘Magistrates Court Act 1980’. This happens because of the seriousness of the offence where it will be decided at the Crown Court by a judge.

Lay Magistrates also do preliminary cases. This is for serious offences such as indictable offences and is to see if there is enough evidence to be tried at the Crown Court. This is known as ‘committal proceedings’ and is intended to establish whether there is a prima facie case against the defendant. This means that there is sufficient evidence on the ‘first look’ to justify trial by jury.

Also Lay Magistrates deal with Youth Courts. They only deal with offender’s aged 10 – 17 years old inclusive who decide to commit crimes of some sort and charged for them. These ...

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Also Lay Magistrates deal with Youth Courts. They only deal with offender’s aged 10 – 17 years old inclusive who decide to commit crimes of some sort and charged for them. These Magistrates receive extra training for this and also sit in private and is less formal than Adult Courts.

The Family Court is another duty that a Lay Magistrate deals with. This is things such as protection orders from violence, affiliation orders concerning the father of a child, adoption orders, separation and maintenance orders and proceedings under the ‘Children’s Act 1989’. Again this requires special training for Lay Magistrates.

There is the civil jurisdiction, which illustrates the wide variety of work done in the Magistrates Court. This civil work includes licensing of pubs and restaurants to sell alcohol, granting licenses under the betting and gambling legislation, enforcing council tax demand and debts owed to the gas, electricity and water authorities.

Also Lay Magistrates issue warrants. This includes search warrants, which the police will ask for permission to search on private property maybe for drugs, stolen property, or for evidence to help them investigate a case and to make sure the Law is not being broken. The police can apply for arrest warrants too, so they can bring people in for questioning or if they have reason to suspicion that a crime is being committed.

Lay Magistrates deal with bail applications. This is if you have been arrested and being held by the police. A bail application can able the defendants to be let out on bail until the trial is heard, while promising to come back.

Finally the last duty of a Lay Magistrate is to hear appeals from the Magistrate Court to the Crown Court. A judge and two Lay Magistrates who will hear the case and decide the verdict or sentence would hear this appeal.

SECTION 2

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using ordinary members of the public as Lay Magistrates

There are many advantages and disadvantages of using members of the public as Lay Magistrates. One advantage is that the members of the public have to live within 15 miles for which they are commissioned. This is because it is intended that they should have local knowledge of the area and their particular problems in which they sit as Magistrate. Also they will know the local circumstances and how people feel about certain crimes or type of crime and therefore when in court can reflect the opinions of locals, and take appropiate action to those people doing this.There is also an aspect of social awareness, understanding the community and respect for people of all races ans cultures.

On the other hand most Magistrates come from the proffessional and managerial classes. Therefore it is unlikely that they live in, or have any real knowledge of the problems in the poorer areas. This is because about 84% of Lay Magistrates are from the middle classes and are referred as middle class, middle aged, and middle minded. This does not seem to stand out as a major problem as there is still a percentage of Lay Magistrates representing other social classes. It sometimes poses a problem because Magistrates from the middle class tend not to fully understand the problems faced by people from the lower working class.

Another advantage of using the public participation is that its a lot cheaper for the government to use than fully qualified Stipendary Magistrates. Lay Magistartes work on a voluntary basis and the government only pays supplementary costs. Lay Magistrates are unpaid and are very cheap and useful, so they are good for the criminal justice system. A Magistrates Court is a lot less intimidating atmosphere for youths so the public is under a lot less pressure as most offences they deal with are summary offences. Lay Magistrates have a more comprehensive view of the area in which they are commissioned.

A disadvantage of this is that they are not qualified and don’t have legal training so they rely too heavily on their clerk. This will prevent inconsistencies in sentencing since the clerk is not allowed to help the Magistrate decide on the length of the sentence. I think this is a disadvantage because when it comes to deciding the sentence the Magistrate will be unable to decide based on the information put forward in the case and so will lack knowledge or understanding and therefore go with what the clerk thought.

My final advantage is that the local community are not complete amateurs due to the improved training Lay Magistrates can undertake, so that they are more involved in their opinions and decision making. They will have the ability to understand and interpret documents, and to identify and comprehend relevant facts. So this will decrease the number of successful appeals as the Magistrates decision will be accurate and bring consistancy in sentencing.

For arguing the other way public participation is a bad idea because lack of training or inadequate training of poor quality could bring criticisms to the sentences resulting in an appeal trial. Lack of understanding will bring inconsistencies in sentencing and in granting bail.

Overall I think advantages outway disadvantages because Lay Magistrates from local areas are cheap, have good local knowledge and understanding, and are able to see points of view from all aspects of socials class. I think this because the disadvantages are able to put right such as training which will also give them understanding of the cases. My opinion is its a good idea to use the public because the crimes are summary and not too stressful to deal with.