Evaluating the System of Lay Magistrates

Although magistrates’ courts generally attract less attention than trial by a jury in the Crown Court, about 98% of cases are dealt with by magistrates’ courts. The quality of justice in these courts is therefore key to the criminal justice system.
Reform of the current system would have three main objectives; to inspire public confidence in the criminal justice system. To allow for wider, more representative public participation in the system by making access to the magistracy genuinely possible for a wider cross-section of society. And also to separate the fact-finding and law finding functions of magistrates. To achieve these objectives a significant reform to the nature and role of the lay magistracy would have to take place.
Under the current system criminal offences fall into one of three categories. Non-indictable or summary offences dealt with by magistrates’ court. Indictable or grave offences dealt with by the Crown court, and either way offences which can be dealt w...