Lay Magistrates Research Paper

1632 Words7 Pages
Introduction There are about 25,000 lay magistrates (people that are not qualified) sitting as part ime judges in the magistrates courts. Magistrates are appointed by the Lord Chancellor this is done by looking at you backgroud and if it's all clear they would decide for you to be a magistrates. To be a magistrate you do not have to be educated you but you have to be the age between 18-65 years and work 27 days a year. There are also District Judges who also sit in the magistrates court. But the District Judges would have to be qualified so they are not lay people. District Judges are chosen by how long they have been working as a solicitor or a barrister and the bare minimum they would have to work for is 5 years. Sitting magistrates have limited power they are not able to sentence offenders for long periods of time but they will be able to give search warrants and warrants for arrest and conduct early administrative hearings. Selection Only specific people are allowed to be magistrates and all the people that would want to be a magistrate would fill a form online which is available online at www.direct.gov.uk. Lay magistrates have no qualifications in law but are still appointed by the Lord Chancellor to make decisions for offenders. However, if they are not qualified they still…show more content…
Anyone ages between 18-65 years old will be able to apply to be a lay magistrate. Sometimes advertisements would be put on newspaper to attract different ethnic groups because they want a ethnic variety so they would have different views. Opening evenings would be organised by the magistrates court so people would be able to attend the magistrates court and they can learn more about it and the role of being a magistrates. All of the aims would attract a wide variety of people that would want to be a
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