One of the greatest shocks that first-time clients face when they arrive at a criminal court is not the way most other ‘normal’ defendants dress (track suits and leggings), not the fact that they have to sit in a glass cage when in court (making hearing the proceedings for the regulars optional), and not the fact that, even though their charge sheet says 10am it does not actually mean 10am (but wait, and wait, potentially until 5pm). Rather, it’s the fact that magistrates are not lawyers.
Magistrates are people like you, volunteers from all walks of life from the local community. They give on average 35 days per year (minimum is 13 days) to sit in the criminal, family and youth courts. They deal with 95% of all criminal cases (albeit the less serious ones) and they are only paid for expenses and loss of earnings (at a set rate). Generally, despite the headlines, the magistrates get it right – only 1% of their decisions are appealed.
Some see the very concept of magistrates as a contradiction at the heart of the British judicial system; they are the judges that deal with more cases than any other branch of the judiciary, yet they are not legally qualified. However, magistrates are not employed by the state in the same way a professional judge is, and are therefore seen as closer to knowing what real life is like – they are more like jurors than professional judges, which many believe results in them being less jaundiced compared to case-hardened cranky professional judges.
