magistrates; is it wrong for ametures to decide on such important matters

Magistrates’ courts are cheap, but it is wrong that matters of vital concern to the citizen should be decided by amateurs.


Magistrates are unpaid volunteers, therefore it should be true that they are cheaper to employ than their qualified colleagues. However this is not strictly true in all cases. Research by Rod Morgan and Neil Russell in the year 2000 found that compared to the basic cost of a professional judge at £90,000 (for a district judge) the lay justice get paid a substantial amount less at £495. Although the direct cost of the magistrates are a lot cheaper as they are volunteers there are a lot more indirect costs. As they are leaving their day jobs to be magistrates they have a lot of costs to cover. There is also the cost of employing a court clerk to assist the magistrates on any matters of the law they are unclear of. There is also some basic training required for all magistrates. There is the cost of employing all the administrative staff that are needed to rec...