Legal System:Lay magistrates

Question 1

Lay Magistrates: Qualification

(HINT: MCGUSS)

Answer 1

• no legal qualifications but characteristics
  
  • Maturity and sound temperament
  • commitment & reliability
  • good character
  • understanding & communication
  • social awareness
  • sound judgement
• age: 18-74
• 26 half days each yr (commitment)
• no serious criminal conviction
• no conflict pf interest (i.e police officer)
• no condition interfere with their duties
• live/work within the local justice area
• prepared to sit at least 26 half days per year

Question 2

Lay Magistrates: selection

Answer 2

• Local Advisory Committee (LAC) recruit new magistrates.
• Advertisement - aim is to select a good crosssection of society
• those selected undertake two interviews:
  o Interview One looks at the candidate’s
  general character, personal attributes and
  whether they possess the six key qualities (MCGUSS)
  o Interview Two assesses the candidate’s
  judicial aptitude and qualities

Question 3

Lay magistrates: appointment

Answer 3

• Appointment
• LAC submit names of suitable candidates to the Senior Presiding
  Judge for England and Wales (Crime and Courts Act 2013).
• Candidates appear in court and swear the oath of allegiance.
• Once appointed, magistrates may continue to sit until aged 75.

Question 4

Lay Magistrates: role in criminal cases

Answer 4

• Lay magistrates try approximately 97% of all criminal cases
• They undertake Early Administrative Hearings, which
  may include:
  o remand hearings
  o bail
  o committal proceedings.
• summary offences
• They deal with plea before venue and mode of trial
  hearings in respect of triable-either-way matters
• issue search and arrest warrants
• extensions to custody time
• Specially trained panels of magistrates deal with young
  offenders aged 10–17 years in Youth Court
• They sit with a judge in the Crown Court to hear appeals
  from the Magistrates’ Court.

Question 5

Jury selection - how

Answer 5

• random via the Jury Central
  Summoning Bureau from the electoral registers for a court area
• must be eligible
• A court official will select fifteen people at random from the jury
  pool to go into the courtroom. A larger number will be selected at
  this point if the trial is expected to last longer than two weeks as
  some may not be able to take an extended period from work
• Of those fifteen, twelve will be randomly chosen to hear the case
• The remaining three stay at the court as reserves in long or
  important trials

Question 6

role of juries in criminal cases

Answer 6

approximately 1% of criminal cases.
* The jury decides whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty in
indictable offences and some either way offences (where D pleads
not guilty).
* They listen to the evidence and the summing up by the judge. bring the lay person’s viewpoint to the case.
* They decide questions of fact, the judge will advise them on points of
law. (strict instructions only to decide the case on
the facts given and not taking account of anything else)
* At the end of the trial they retire to the jury room to discuss the case
in private. Jury independence key principle fundamental
to rule of law.
*unanimous decision if possible, or a majority
decision of at least 10-2 if necessary.
* Juries do not have to give any reasons for their decisions.

Question 7

qualification for jury service - elegibility

Answer 7

• Juries Act 1974 (as amended) states those eligible :
  o Aged between 18-75
  o Registered on parliamentary or local government electoral
  role
  o Resident of the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man for at
  least five consecutive years

Question 8

qualification jury service - ineligibility

Answer 8

Some people might be selected but will be ineligible to serve, for
example:
o disqualified - on bail
o ineligible – mentally disordered or lack of capacity
o excused – Armed Forces
o discretionary – exam, pregnancy

Question 9

Jury vetting

Answer 9

 Two types of vetting may be undertaken during selection:
o Routine criminal record check
o In cases of national security, a wider background check
may be undertaken subject to Attorney Generals’s guidelines

Question 10

Jury selection - challenge

Answer 10

•  Three types of challenges may take place during the selection
  period:
  For cause – individual challenged available to both the
  prosecution and the defence
  o To the array – whole jury challenged available to both the
  prosecution and the defence
  o Prosecution right to stand by - allows individual juror to be put on end of potential jurors -> not used unless not enough other jurors