Magistrate Application

[MasterMasters]

I have applied to become a magistrate and a week after submitting the application, I received an email asking me to provide full details of a speeding offence 10 years previously (and thoughts then and now about it). My return email was acknowledged but I’ve not heard anything for 3 weeks.

Does anyone know if you get informed if you haven’t been successful or you just don’t hear? They say not to chase them to find out the status of your application so don’t like to email. Thank you in advance!

My DD is a new magistrate.

She applied in January 2022, made the first sift, had her references taken up in February 2022, was interviewed in May 2022. The interview process was rigorous and was in two parts. If you pass the first interview you are set written tasks and invited back for a second interview. DD then heard via email that she had been successful within 24 hours.

She has had the official confirmation of her appointment 4 months later (Sept 2022), but has yet to start training.

Everything to do with the Ministry of Justice takes ages and you don't hear anything between stages.

Good luck.

Thank you, that’s really helpful. Congratulations to your DD, that’s brilliant. Fingers crossed she starts the training soon so she can get stuck in!

I’m going through the application process at the moment. It took around 6 weeks from submitting the application online, to getting a response (that may have been a bit longer than normal though as one of my referees hadn’t replied to them and they had to chase it up I believe!)
However once they had heard from him I got a response back within about 2 days, and the interview was 2 weeks later.
Have passed that - I heard via email the next day! Am now waiting for DBS check to come back. I gather everything from now on takes absolutely ages…..
All the best!

That’s really helpful too! How exciting, well done. My referees haven’t been contacted as far as I know. Fingers crossed. Thank you!

DD has the swearing-in ceremony at our local Crown Court at the end of October. She will then start her training. It will be 10 months from her initial application and court visit to give you an idea of time scale. (This is the SE region).

Bowbridge - thank you for your response. It certainly is quite long! I’ve still not heard anything - coming up to 6 weeks. They said they let you know either way so just waiting…

@MasterMasters have you heard anything yet? DD has now finished her training and starts her mentored court visits next week. The training was 1 day face to face at the local court and 3 days online. All 7 hour long intensive sessions with break out groups for discussing aspect of cases and the law.

Hello, thank you for asking. I actually heard just this week and have an interview at the end of January! Oh good luck to her, how exciting. Interesting to hear about the training too - fingers crossed I get that far! I hope she enjoys it 😊

MasterMasters How did it all go? Did you get through the interview? I have had, and fortunately passed, the interview but have heard nothing back after that. Just wondering what sort of timescale we are looking at following interview and DBS checks.