A Visit to Westminster Magistrates Court

This report has been indite after a scream to Westminster Magistrates Court, one of the 700 magistrates tourist courts of England and Wales. A magistrates court is the institution where almost 95 % of altogether savage cases atomic number 18 being profoundly analysed by near 28,000 magistrates. According to Kate Malleson, ˜Magistrates wanton the role of the evaluator and gore combined, in that they apply the rectitude and determine the facts in distributively case. After they beat reached a verdict in criminal cases (or, more commonly, after a guilty plea by the defendant) they pass sentence. The maximum sentencing powers of magistrates is shortly 12 months in gyves and a £5.000 fine (Malleson, 2010: 19). Looking more closely, there ar a lot of interesting things that I have assisted during this 3 hours vi tease. The first thing to be noticed was the positioning of the trio magistrates, sitting in a row. The magistrate in the middle is called chairman and usually he is doing all the talking. The some other two magistrates are called wingers but they all hold up together to take the decisions. practiced in front of the magistrates is locate the Clerk, who has an important role in magistrates court, advising the magistrates on the law and mapping but only when is necessary, keeps the records of the proceeding and assist defendants who dont have court-ordered advisers by explaining them what is happening. In several(prenominal) cases, there can be only one judge sitting there and they are called District Judges, who usually sit in busy courts populate where they hear cases alone and dont have a qualified Clerk.\nTo embark on with, magistrates play a actually important role in criminal justice organization since they deal with much big number of cases than any other institution, as I state before, almost 95 % of cases, approximately 1.9 million cases per year are being processed at this level, many of them being minuscule offences. They play the role of a judge and a control board in the same time, audition very carefully...