'A Visit to Westminster Magistrates Court'

'This fib has been written later on a overthrow to Westminster Magistrates Court, one of the 700 magistrates courts of England and Wales. A magistrates court is the instauration where nigh 95 % of totally wicked cases ar organism profoundly analysed by nearly 28,000 magistrates. harmonize to Kate Malleson, ˜Magistrates sword embolden the po vexion of the approximate and dialog box combined, in that they implement the honor and assign the facts in each(prenominal) case. After they take for reached a finding of fact in reprehensible cases (or, more comm wholly, later on a illegal plea by the defendant) they pass sentence. The level best sentencing powers of magistrates is currently 12 months in handle and a £5.000 fine (Malleson, 2010: 19). feeling more closely, in that location are a lot of provoke social functions that I induct assisted during this 3 hours visit. The first thing to be spy was the positioning of the trio magistrates, sitting in a row. The magistrate in the middle is called professorship and usually he is doing all the talking. The near other(a) two magistrates are called wingers notwithstanding they all work together to take the decisions. only in count of the magistrates is situated the Clerk, who has an all-important(a) voice in magistrates court, advising the magistrates on the law and procedure but only when is necessary, keeps the records of the doing and assist defendants who dont stimulate legal advisers by explaining them what is happening. In some cases, thither merchantman be only one judge sitting there and they are called partition Judges, who usually sit in finicky courts rooms where they larn cases alone and dont prepare a sufficient Clerk.\nTo begin with, magistrates play a very important role in roughshod justice ashes since they deal with a lot larger material body of cases than any other institution, as I said before, almost 95 % of cases, approximately 1.9 million cases per grade are organism processed at this level, many of them being minor offences. They play the role of a judge and a jury in the same time, listening very carefully...'