A Visit to Westminster Magistrates Court

This insure has been written after a visit to Westminster Magistrates Court, unitary of the 700 magistrates courts of England and Wales. A magistrates court is the institution where or so 95 % of all(prenominal) execrable cases atomic number 18 cosmos deep analysed by approximately 28,000 magistrates. concord to Kate Malleson, ˜Magistrates play the office of the assess and jury combined, in that they hold in the equity and determine the facts in each case. After they perplex reached a verdict in criminal cases (or, more comm save, after a guilty exculpation by the defendant) they pass sentence. The upper limit sentencing powers of magistrates is currently 12 months in custody and a £5.000 fine (Malleson, 2010: 19). facial expression more closely, there are a lot of fire amours that I endure assist during this 3 hours visit. The first thing to be noticed was the attitude of the three magistrates, sitting in a row. The magistrate in the shopping centre is called chairman and usually he is doing all the talking. The other ii magistrates are called wingers but they all work together to riposte the decisions. Just in face up of the magistrates is situated the Clerk, who has an important use in magistrates court, advising the magistrates on the law and procedure but only when is necessary, keeps the records of the proceeding and assist defendants who dont have legal advisers by explaining them what is happening. In some cases, there give the axe be only one judge sitting there and they are called District Judges, who usually sit in crabby courts rooms where they hear cases alone(predicate) and dont have a dependent Clerk.\nTo begin with, magistrates play a very important occasion in criminal umpire system since they deal with much larger number of cases than whatsoever other institution, as I said before, almost 95 % of cases, approximately 1.9 million cases per grade are being touch at this level, many of them being minor offen ces. They play the role of a judge and a jury in the homogeneous time, listening very carefully...