Could you be a magistrate?

I'm in Ireland. The role of the magistrate is carried out in the District Court by a judge.

If you don’t mind me asking, are you UK-based? And if so, what is the role where you live? I’m really curious, as I’ve only ever known magistrate roles to be voluntary.

Where I live it's not a voluntary role.

Yes

Unless things have changed recently, the are District Judges (formerly Stipendiary Magistrates) who sit in Magistrates Court on their own and are paid but I've not heard of any area where there aren't Lay Magistrates (part time, unpaid).

What do you mean? Being a magistrate is a voluntary role, so how can magistrates in your area not be volunteers?

This is quite interesting

https://sentencingcouncil.org.uk/resources/you-be-the-judge/

"You be the Judge is an interactive website created by the Sentencing Council with support from the Judiciary of England and Wales. It puts you in the role of a judge or magistrate to make decisions based on real-life cases and decide what you think the sentence should be. You can then compare your sentence to the one given by the judge or magistrates."

Wowza that's AMAZING 🤩

My DD was appointed as a magistrate in her early 20s whilst at university. She has been sitting for 4 years and loves her days in court. She finds it fascinating, loves working with the other magistrates and has learnt so much. She brings a different perspective and youth to the bench.

She found grad job interviews a breeze compared to her magistrate's interview. She has found the legal knowledge and eye for detail has had a major impact on the direction of her career.

More regions are now showing as actively recruiting https://magistrates.affinixats.co.uk/jobtools/jncustomsearch.searchResults?in_organid=20425&in_jobDate=All

Yes. But when I applied a few years ago it proved to be very hard to get info

‘Hang them’ or ‘give them a £fiver, pat them on the head and send them on their way’ are the best answers 😉

Good luck and I hope the mills grind as quickly as possible.

Following my negative comments about the long wait, I am pleased to say I has now passed the Situational Judgement Test and offered an interview. The email warned it may be a long wait :( Still at least I am still in. The test was harder than I anticipated!

I think, as you say, telling them and let them decide.

@maggymcmagface @grumpygrape it's good if you think it wouldn't be an issue. I used to be in an elected role and was worried about people finding out, in case of misconduct in public office. It's more the kink aspect than the polyamory - since leaving office I've felt more free to not have to worry about it, but now that I'm a regular citizen I'm at public events in a state of undress and I assumed being a magistrate would be a similar role where I could get into trouble. Previously I had to disclose anything in my past that could be concerning/newsworthy - it's possibly worth me applying and telling them, and let them make their own judgement about it.

I only learned of CourtServe after I’d been sitting for 2-3 years. It’s sort-of handy, but absolutely doesn’t cover everything, so I wouldn’t take a lack of listings to mean it’ll be a quiet day. Remands, particularly, don’t lend themselves to pre-listing - and there’ll always be remands taking place, including Saturdays and some bank holidays.

Just to add to the thread, I was looking at CourtServe to try and get an idea of what was going on at my local magistrates court and it seemed wildly variable what there was information about on a given day. I wasn't sure if this meant that on some days there were actually very few cases sitting so I rang the central number up today and they said there are still plenty of cases on. So I think that you can take CourtServe with a pinch of salt and that it still might well be worth pitching up if you want to learn more. Quite why the online system doesn't seem to have all the information on it is another question.

In addition to the response from NewWinger, ask at Reception or one of the Ushers which court(s) has what type of case(s) and they’ll know how to get you something worth seeing.

If you can, introduce yourself to the Usher of the court you go into, tell them why you are there and say you might be taking notes for your own use. If you strike lucky you might be invited to meet the Mags and have a brief chat to them. We always did if possible if our Usher said there was a potential applicant in court.

At interview you may be asked what sort of cases you observed and your thoughts about what you saw.

Sorry, edited to say I've repeated some of NewWinger's response - maybe that shows it's good advice ? 😂

Amazing! Good luck

How rude.

Yes, observations are just going into court to observe the business of the day. Pick different days of the week, as this gives you the best chance of seeing different work on the two days. For example, my home court does Remands every day, but traffic on Fridays only. You might not see a trial, but will almost certainly see the management of cases, and a good deal of sentencing.

Courts are public buildings, so you can go at any time; my advice would be to go straight to the ushers’ desk/office, explain why you’re there, and ask for their help/guidance. They’ll know which courts are likely to be busiest, but also the courts where mags are sitting, rather than a judge. I would aim to be there from 9.30 (court starts at 10, but worth getting there earlier to get yourself in and settled) until lunch, which is usually 1. At that point, I’d take a view about the afternoon; if you’ve seen a busy morning with a variety of cases, you might well want to leave it at that.

Just make a note of the dates, you’ll need to mention them on your application; I’m pretty sure the dates won’t be checked. That said, I would expect at least one of the interviews to touch upon your observations, for example what you saw and your thoughts.

Good luck, hope all goes well.

So today I checked my workplace’s volunteer policy and we can take 10 paid days a year for volunteering (I know magistrates need a minimum of 13 days per year but I have generous annual leave and usually carry 5 days over). Fuck it, I’m gonna apply. Do observations days just mean sitting in court watching trials? How do you prove you did this? The application process isn’t hugely explanatory! But at least 2 observations are required before I can even apply

No. I would want revenge, as do most people who are wronged. But that’s not the point, and with respect, that would also be a very good reason for me not to be involved in any processes that are connected to that offence. The point I’m making is that, where I live, which may or may not be generalisable to a wider region, the people who do volunteer have a particular profile and a sense of personal entitlement that is visible from space. I would not want to be put in the same category. But equally I’m aware of the alternative argument that if the job is left to those whose initial inclination is to do it then it will only ever be performed by those who should never be allowed anywhere near it

No this didn't include training and it was one interview. You don't start training until after you have been sworn in.

Education doesn’t matter you’re right.