I’m a Magistrate - AMA

[BettyCallMeAl]

I’m a magistrate, and since a few people at work have asked me about it, I thought I’d do an AMA in case others have questions.

I am a Presiding Justice in adult criminal courts, holding trials and sentencing across the whole range of cases from theft to drugs, assault, domestic violence, criminal damage, sexual offences, traffic etc (96% of all criminal offence are dealt with by Magistrates - only the most serious are not). I also adjudicate on search warrants for drugs / immigration, various other things.

If you want to know more about what we do, what works well / doesn’t, ask away. Or if you might want to become a magistrate, are due to appear in court as a defendant / witness, and want to know how it all works, I am here.

(so long as you address me as Your Worship and take your hands out of your pockets) 😊

I don’t think I sit enough to see the same old faces! Only just over once a month, so it would need some lucky scheduling for repeat offenders to see me regularly. I guess if you worked in the court every day you would begin to recognise people. The only people I see most sitting days are court staff, probation staff and lawyers.

Often these days there are also specialist courts for different types of crime. So one town’s court might be the regional traffic court or whatever, where a lot of those particular cases will be heard. This further reduces the likelihood of seeing people frequently.

It also reduces the chances of bumping into people outside of court who you’ve sentenced inside of court! I do think about this, and did more so at the beginning. But it’s never happened. I don’t live in the town where I am most frequently a magistrate (I live in the next town over, 20 mins drive away) but I go shopping etc there regularly and it’s never happened. I do see court staff from time to time.

I’m not a family magistrate so I can’t answer re the C1A. There are three types of magistrate - adult, youth and family. I think you can be all three if you want, with appropriate training. But I’m only adults because I’ve never fancied the other two.

In adult courts, we do read some things beforehand eg probation reports, character references etc. Statements are put to us by lawyers if relevant.

Sometimes it’s easier than other times to assess someone’s character, but it’s rarely simple and always very subjective. Often in the retiring room there are differences of opinion between magistrates over many things, most often the sincerity of a defendant.

In my experience we don’t hear specifics about any issues outside of the court before a hearing. I struggle to see how that could be done in a fair way.

Have there been cases of a magistrate passing an incorrect sentence and that being pointed out at a later date/appealed? Would the magistrate be in trouble?

Thank you. Will get some observations booked in then!

I have no problem reading paperwork. I'm a school governor and charity trustee so already have to read quite a lot for those roles, and of course for my day job. It's more certain types of admin that I sometimes struggle with but looks like that wouldn't be a problem as long as I don't sign up to be a family court magistrate.

Thank you for this. Has put it firmly back on my radar! I think I’ll look to do some court observations with a view to considering applying when my youngest starts school next year. Luckily I know my employer would be supportive.

Sentences aren’t set in stone. We have guidelines which quite often go from a conditional discharge all the way to prison, and it’s up to us to decide what we think is appropriate. We always have to give reasons, and as long as our reasons aren’t unreasonable then the sentence will likely stand. Even if we depart from the guidance, this is OK so long as we can reasonably justify it.

A Legal Advisor (aka Court Clerk) always sits with us and gives advice on what we can and can’t take into account, and any legal minimums and maximums.

Our sentences are sometimes appealed to the Crown Court. This has happened a few times to me, and it’s not massively unusual. It’s almost always to do with things that have a timing issue eg driving bans or bail. A standard fine or community order would be less common to see appealed.

I’ve never been ‘in trouble’. I guess if a panel ignored legal advice there would be some issues but actually I don’t know what would happen here as I’ve never seen it occur.

My question is why, what made you want to do this?

also do you think the demographic of magistrates prejudice the sentences handed out? Let’s be honest it’s largely I white middle class middle aged demographic.

do you find defendants often opt for trial or sentencing at crown court when they’re able to?

i have experience of both crown and magistrates courts when I was an undergrad studying law (as an observer / mini-pupil only) - my experience is generally magistrates seem more likely to convict, and the sentences seem to be harsher.

no offence OP - but in my view it would make more sense to have more District Judges, they’re better informed legally, they take less court time etc. What are your views?

I know you're not worried about security while you're in court but are y ou worried about someone harbouring a grudge and finding out where you live?

If you have a legal background, does this prevent you from applying?

I did my observations when I was planning to apply, but it was so disheartening I gave up on the idea. Lots of people who were clearly frequent offenders, lots of people getting fines to be paid at £5 a week who were already paying off other fines. People smirking. Lots of compulsory installation of prepayment meters. It was one of the most depressing things I have done.

Not at all. They’d have to go some to find out who I was and where I lived (my name isn’t made public in court). I’ve never heard of any magistrates having any difficulties of this kind. And obviously if anyone did attack a magistrate in revenge, this would be extremely serious for them.

OK Thanks, thats reassuring.

For some reason that sort of thing always put me off but now that the kids have left home i'm a lot less risk averse anyway.

No. Even actual solicitors/barristers can be magistrates, under certain conditions. I don’t know any.

I am not a lawyer myself but I do have a law degree. This is just coincidental though. No legal knowledge or qualifications are required, although an interest in criminal justice obviously is.

The only people prevented from applying tend to be people directly working in the criminal justice system eg police officers.

I wanted to do it because I’ve long been interested in the law and particularly criminal justice. I studied law at uni, never wanted to practice, but never lost the interest or that way of thinking.

It was also a good way to use my skills to give something back to my community. That’s something I’ve done in different ways over the years (I have been a school governor and a Councillor).

I do think the Magistracy would benefit from being more class-diverse, yes. But I don’t think it prejudices sentences to a great degree. A mixture of training (a lot of which is on that kind of thing), sentencing guidelines and the fact that there are three of us discussing things serves to reduce the impact. And of course defendants almost always have an advocate, who tends to be middle class!

When defendants are able to opt for a Crown Court trial, some do and some don’t. I would say that most don’t. I’ve thought about what I’d do if I was such a defendant, and I think it would depend on the offence and how strong my case was. Obviously getting 10-12 jurors out of 12 to be certain of your guilt is harder than getting two out of three magistrates to be certain of it. But on the other hand, Crown Court sentences and costs are potentially higher, and the whole process lasts longer. So it’s swings and roundabouts.

I agree that District Judges are better informed legally. But we have Legal Advisors to make up the gap. We are also local peers, which I think is important. And there are three of us, which helps with the potential bias point (DJs are more middle aged and middle class on the whole than magistrates are!). And of course magistrates are also pretty much free, whereas DJs are not.

My point experience of magistrates is when I was a victim, it went to court but it was ruled not guilty. Cos of the rules around what you could and couldn't mention in court about the case and rules around the definition of harassment.
Law doesn't always give the right outcome.
I couldn't be a magistrate cos I'd hate to be someone who made a decision like that which was a wrong decision

I’m sorry you had a bad experience.

I do sometimes get frustrated about legal issues preventing what I would see as a more just outcome. But be reassured (both as a potential magistrate and just a regular citizen) that such things are rare. And there is something to be said generally for a system which sees more guilty people being found not guilty than the other way round (although I get that in your case, you might not see this the same way).

I am shamelessly placemarking as my husband has been toying with being one and this has been very helpful.

Thank you.

I’m a family court magistrate (sorry to jump on thread) and it is a bit different in family court in that we would be told about people kicking off in the waiting room and we should be given all the papers for the cases we see that day the night before or that morning (depending on how each court do it).

Re: is it possible to tell who is a controlling person - I’d like to think that after a while you can spot the signs - and having 3 magistrates plus the legal advisor helps.

@Sportismeantobefun
Thank you for taking the time to post this response

Really helpful post, thanks.
I’m thinking about applying as family magistrate but -unlike criminal- there is so little info out there on what it truly entails. What’s it really like in the day to day? And no idea how to prepare and practice for assessment and interview, so suggestions welcome.

I've always wondered, when it comes to fines, whether or not you take into account the wealth of the person you are sentencing. If you do so, to what extent.
A £150 speeding ticket is nothing to a millionaire, whereas for someone with far less, it is far more painful.

Thoughts ?.... Thanks in advance.

I’m a legal adviser and I am concerned about some of your posts.
In particular:
Sometimes people get aggressive but I’ve never been seriously concerned
You should be more concerned. I have seen magistrates both verbally abused and threatened. I have seen defendants throw things at magistrates and spit at them. I have seen defendants try to kick the door leading to the retiring room in an attempt at retaliation.

legal adviser (aka court clerk)
You are diminishing our role, we have not been court clerks for many years now

There are sentencing guidelines for almost all offences, to give consistency. These are usually very helpful. But we’re not bound by them, and frequently choose to go above or below depending on circumstances
You should only depart from sentencing guidelines in exceptional circumstances - as you say yourself, the guidelines exist to give consistency in sentencing all cases. The idea is that you should receive the same type of sentence whether you committed your offence in Bolton or in Truro

How is the early release scheme impacting your role?

Are you the same as a sheriff? As in Scotland we have sheriff court and high court. To my very limited knowledge sheriff's are paid and have a legal background. Also my dd did a mock court case in the sheriff court recently. Is there similar in England?

My wife was a magistrate when kids were little (now a "reservist") but she was really lucky that her work allowed it in work time. We also shared childcare 50/50 which helped. The workplace benefitted from the experience too as she ended up sitting on tribunals etc where the decision making practice was very useful