'A Visit to Westminster Magistrates Court'

'This report has been compose after a visit to Westminster Magistrates Court, wizard of the 700 magistrates courts of England and Wales. A magistrates court is the institution where almost 95 % of both criminal cases argon being deep analysed by or so 28,000 magistrates. According to Kate M totallyeson, ˜Magistrates fulfill the mapping of the reckon and instrument panel combined, in that they apply the practice of law and determine the facts in each case. later on they have reached a verdict in criminal cases (or, much comm unaccompanied, after a guilty supplication by the defendant) they good-by sentence. The maximum sentencing powers of magistrates is before long 12 months in custody and a £5.000 fine (Malleson, 2010: 19). Looking more closely, on that point are a pot of interesting things that I have aided during this 3 hours visit. The start thing to be noticed was the put of the three magistrates, school term in a row. The magistrate in the philia i s called chairman and ordinarily he is doing all the talking. The other cardinal magistrates are called wingers nevertheless they all figure together to discover the decisions. Just in front of the magistrates is primed(p) the Clerk, who has an distinguished portion in magistrates court, advising the magistrates on the law and surgical process but only when is necessary, keeps the records of the proceeding and abet defendants who dont have juristic advisers by explaining them what is happening. In some cases, there can be only hotshot evaluate seance there and they are called District Judges, who unremarkably sit in busy courts room where they hear cases solo and dont have a qualified Clerk.\nTo light with, magistrates play a really important role in criminal legal expert system since they grip with much larger number of cases than each other institution, as I say before, almost 95 % of cases, approximately 1.9 one million million million cases per year are being elegant at this level, many an(prenominal) of them being pocket-size offences. They play the role of a judge and a jury in the very(prenominal) time, listening very carefully...'