Extensive Use Of Lay Magistrates
No legal system makes extensive use of lay magistrates as England and Wales. Lay magistrates become formalised in the Justice of the Peace Act 1361, but the English legal system makes use of lay (non professional) magistrates since 1195. The reason of the use of lay magistrates lies in the notion of participatory democracy , “judgement by one’s peers” . Throughout the years many have encountered in reforms, opinions and discussion regarding the role of judges within the system.
Together with district judges, lay magistrates deal with 95 per cent of criminal cases. In England and Wales lay magistrates usually sit in a bench of three, or sometimes two. The one who sit in the middle and speaks on behalf of them all, is called ‘Chairman’, usually …show more content…
is the more experienced one. The other two are called ‘Wingers’. The bench have to be as representative as the community so the bench would be a mix of race, ethnicity, age and sex. However, this is not totally true, there is a lack of diversity due to the fact that magistrates select new magistrates, the Magistrates’ Association itself called this system a “self-perpetuating oligarchy” .
All adults between 18-65 can apply; English citizenship is not a requirement anymore, the Act of Settlement 1700 abolished this rule. As a matter of fact the intent was to create diversity within the court. Lay magistrates need to demonstrate five qualities such as good character; social awareness; commitment and reliability; sound judgement; understanding and communication, maturity and sound temperament. Some jobs, for instance police officer, and some criminal offence such as bankrupt could operate as a barrier. Lay magistrates are unpaid volunteers. They have to sit 26 half days minimum per year, however, the average of them sit for a longer period. New magistrates are trained to achieve competence. However, they always sit with the legal adviser, who advises the magistrates on matters of law.
The aim of the introduction of lay magistrates in the English legal system was to create a bench representatives of the people and the local community. Non-professionals can give their knowledge to help in criminal cases; moreover a different bench representative of the community gives the defendant the security of not being discriminated. Although the goal has not been fully achieved. Nowadays magistrates are becoming less diverse, statistics and research show that magistrates are older, white, middle class and more heterosexual. The average age of the lay magistrates is 60. In Transform Justice, Magistrates: representatives of the public (Feb 2014), many magistrates had been interviewed and all agree that most magistrates are too old, and not representative of the society. They agree as well that ethnic diversity is too low, and many communities are under-represented, for instance Afro-Caribbean and Asiatic.
In other words, there are problems to achieve a balanced bench. First of all due to the fact that the recruitment is frozen; the work of magistrates is falling, and for these reasons it seems difficult to recruit new magistrates and to achieve a bench which is representative of the local community. Secondly it seems that there is a lack of knowledge about the skills needed for lay magistrates. Most of people are unaware that lay magistrates are volunteers and they do not need professional skills. Thirdly despite the fact that they are protected by the Employment Rights Act 1996, which stated that the employer has a duty to allow to the employee free time to attend the court. However, still the majority is afraid that applying for magistrates could have some consequences in their jobs.
In the recent years, the Magistrate Association is trying to advertise more the lay magistrates’ role in the court, to recruit more people, and they are trying as well to recruit younger people. Furthermore magistrates are doing valuable work to let people know about their volunteering work.
In 2003 when Lord Falconer become Lord Chancellor the department published a National Strategy for the Recruitment of Lay Magistrates . This took Auld’s ideas on how to recruit a more diverse bench. “The magistracy is not a true reflection of the population nationally or of the communities locally” and “urgent steps must be taken to remove its largely unrepresentative nature” (Auld, 2001: 119). The programme to increase the diversity had some, but not so many, positive effects. The recruitment were targeted at underrepresented groups.
In the Transform Justice, Magistrates: representative of the people, (Feb 2014), it is shown the Magistrates’ view of the application and interview process.
The majority of them stated that the process is slow and consequently is stressful; this could bring people to lose interest to apply for it.
The Morgan and Russel report (2000) shows that the benches are gender balanced, actually statistics from 2013 show that there are slightly more women than men. The same report shows that there is an overwhelming concentration of professionals and manager. It indicates that there is a lack of representation of different ethnicities. This report could not show any opinion about political affiliation because there are not enough data.
How to recruit a more diverse and representative bench of magistrates: firstly nearly 90% of the magistrates are from “higher managerial, administrative and professional occupation” , most of them are retired and most of the defendants are young with a higher proportion of BAME residents. Involving young people in the court as lay magistrates could give the opportunity to reduce the average of old magistrates and widen the diversity of the bench. Secondly according to Penelope Gibbs and Amy Kirby in Judged by peers? The diversity of lay magistrates in England and Wales (Howard League What is Justice? Working Papers 6/2014) the magistrates recruitment is frozen. However, the article shows some possible
solutions.
First of all it is said that the work of lay magistrates is shared with the district judges, so the idea would be to freeze district judges’ recruitment and encourage magistrates’. Secondly try to delegate some of the Crown Court’s work to magistrates’, in this way the system would need more magistrates and the recruitment would not be Furthermore to restrict the number of sitting days and introduce a ten year fixed tenure for magistrates. Another solution would be encouraging application from under-represented group.
I submit that, despite several attempts, some vain and some in their process of emerged, of build a bench as representative as the local community, it seems to be still far from the primary aim. No doubt on saying that some progresses are being made in this field, however, some problems are still open and need to be fixed.
Together with district judges, lay magistrates deal with 95 per cent of criminal cases. In England and Wales lay magistrates usually sit in a bench of three, or sometimes two. The one who sit in the middle and speaks on behalf of them all, is called ‘Chairman’, usually …show more content…
is the more experienced one. The other two are called ‘Wingers’. The bench have to be as representative as the community so the bench would be a mix of race, ethnicity, age and sex. However, this is not totally true, there is a lack of diversity due to the fact that magistrates select new magistrates, the Magistrates’ Association itself called this system a “self-perpetuating oligarchy” .
All adults between 18-65 can apply; English citizenship is not a requirement anymore, the Act of Settlement 1700 abolished this rule. As a matter of fact the intent was to create diversity within the court. Lay magistrates need to demonstrate five qualities such as good character; social awareness; commitment and reliability; sound judgement; understanding and communication, maturity and sound temperament. Some jobs, for instance police officer, and some criminal offence such as bankrupt could operate as a barrier. Lay magistrates are unpaid volunteers. They have to sit 26 half days minimum per year, however, the average of them sit for a longer period. New magistrates are trained to achieve competence. However, they always sit with the legal adviser, who advises the magistrates on matters of law.
The aim of the introduction of lay magistrates in the English legal system was to create a bench representatives of the people and the local community. Non-professionals can give their knowledge to help in criminal cases; moreover a different bench representative of the community gives the defendant the security of not being discriminated. Although the goal has not been fully achieved. Nowadays magistrates are becoming less diverse, statistics and research show that magistrates are older, white, middle class and more heterosexual. The average age of the lay magistrates is 60. In Transform Justice, Magistrates: representatives of the public (Feb 2014), many magistrates had been interviewed and all agree that most magistrates are too old, and not representative of the society. They agree as well that ethnic diversity is too low, and many communities are under-represented, for instance Afro-Caribbean and Asiatic.
In other words, there are problems to achieve a balanced bench. First of all due to the fact that the recruitment is frozen; the work of magistrates is falling, and for these reasons it seems difficult to recruit new magistrates and to achieve a bench which is representative of the local community. Secondly it seems that there is a lack of knowledge about the skills needed for lay magistrates. Most of people are unaware that lay magistrates are volunteers and they do not need professional skills. Thirdly despite the fact that they are protected by the Employment Rights Act 1996, which stated that the employer has a duty to allow to the employee free time to attend the court. However, still the majority is afraid that applying for magistrates could have some consequences in their jobs.
In the recent years, the Magistrate Association is trying to advertise more the lay magistrates’ role in the court, to recruit more people, and they are trying as well to recruit younger people. Furthermore magistrates are doing valuable work to let people know about their volunteering work.
In 2003 when Lord Falconer become Lord Chancellor the department published a National Strategy for the Recruitment of Lay Magistrates . This took Auld’s ideas on how to recruit a more diverse bench. “The magistracy is not a true reflection of the population nationally or of the communities locally” and “urgent steps must be taken to remove its largely unrepresentative nature” (Auld, 2001: 119). The programme to increase the diversity had some, but not so many, positive effects. The recruitment were targeted at underrepresented groups.
In the Transform Justice, Magistrates: representative of the people, (Feb 2014), it is shown the Magistrates’ view of the application and interview process.
The majority of them stated that the process is slow and consequently is stressful; this could bring people to lose interest to apply for it.
The Morgan and Russel report (2000) shows that the benches are gender balanced, actually statistics from 2013 show that there are slightly more women than men. The same report shows that there is an overwhelming concentration of professionals and manager. It indicates that there is a lack of representation of different ethnicities. This report could not show any opinion about political affiliation because there are not enough data.
How to recruit a more diverse and representative bench of magistrates: firstly nearly 90% of the magistrates are from “higher managerial, administrative and professional occupation” , most of them are retired and most of the defendants are young with a higher proportion of BAME residents. Involving young people in the court as lay magistrates could give the opportunity to reduce the average of old magistrates and widen the diversity of the bench. Secondly according to Penelope Gibbs and Amy Kirby in Judged by peers? The diversity of lay magistrates in England and Wales (Howard League What is Justice? Working Papers 6/2014) the magistrates recruitment is frozen. However, the article shows some possible
solutions.
First of all it is said that the work of lay magistrates is shared with the district judges, so the idea would be to freeze district judges’ recruitment and encourage magistrates’. Secondly try to delegate some of the Crown Court’s work to magistrates’, in this way the system would need more magistrates and the recruitment would not be Furthermore to restrict the number of sitting days and introduce a ten year fixed tenure for magistrates. Another solution would be encouraging application from under-represented group.
I submit that, despite several attempts, some vain and some in their process of emerged, of build a bench as representative as the local community, it seems to be still far from the primary aim. No doubt on saying that some progresses are being made in this field, however, some problems are still open and need to be fixed.