Magistrate - Anyone done this?

TBagpuss

The discussions between magistrates generally tale place out of court. Tygermoth would be able to make sure that the Chair of the panel was aware of their issues and give them the extra minute or two to confirm if necessary.(for instance, the chair can double check with him/her before they all go back into court to give their verdict / sentence

I can't see any situation where someone would be convicted incorrectly. OP could, after all, correct themself if they mis-spoke, and since Magistrates generally confer in private, there is not even much risk that a defendant might momentarily think they had been convicted, when they hadn't.

Entering and leaving - normally the Mags come in once everyone is ready for them, but I would have thought that the Court should be able to make appropriate accommodations for you, if you let them know what would assist (e.g. grab bars / rails )

I also disagree that someone who only sits as a winger, not as a chair, is a 'passenger'. The difference is whether you are speaking in public to defendants or witnesses, or in private, to your co-magistrates.

It is also worth bearing in mind that in Court, *everyone* waits for the Judge or Magistrates to speak, so if Tygermoth needs a little longer than others to organise their thoughts and say them out loud, that's not going to be an issue. (equally, if it works better, they could write their question down and pass it to the Chair to read out. )

Tygermoth, I hope the application goes well.

Smodlet

I have to wonder, Tygermoth, if your motivation to become a magistrate, given your issues, is in any way prompted by your nfh?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/74164324#Comment_74164324

Reue

ScorpiondeRooftrouser wrote: »

Anyone who wants to do it probably shouldn't.

Who should do it then?

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

Reue wrote: »

Who should do it then?

Paid professionals. It's absurd to leave the law and people's futures in the hands of amateurs, however well meaning.

If we can't have that than anyone who thinks "I'd be an ideal person to sit in judgement of others" should be immediately ruled out.

DigForVictory

My husband reckons that anyone who wants to be an MP should not be allowed to unless they have a track records of 20 years running a business first. Apart from the fact MPs are nicely paid thank you & some can & do go one to make significant positive changes for their constituents, I tend to agree,

Magistrates however are much harder to recruit - as if you don't ask for volunteers then it's the old chums brigade and that has to be as bad for society as people yearning to have overt power.

Besides which, most magistrates do not have "the law and people's futures" in amateur hands. They are trained, spend years on the wing before working up to the centre chair and they get to preside over the nitty gritty but small stuff - speeding offences & the like. Most of the heavy duty stuff is tracked up to the professionals with the juries.

I sort of agree those who want it shouldn't get it, but those who are prepared to surrender their time & effort & privacy are actually too thin on the ground & being dashed picky over volunteers makes more sense (& better budgetary sense) than training & paying "professionals" who want careers & might make deliberately eye-catching 'decisions' aimed at opening professional doors. The volunteers already have an income from somewhere, which shields them a bit from both ignorance & venality.

Courts run most of the days of the year, so while training may take chunks of an entire week at a time, it isn't one big lump. Rotas are always ticklish but the clerk of the court will usually be reasonable (to loose a trained magistrate reflects very badly after all.)
If you have physical health conditions & can be clear on how you manage them & what help you currently need (& what you might need), then the panel have a clear idea of what they can hope for in terms of healthy days a year.

The magistrate I worked with used to come in after a couple of days on looking a bit worn. He got a lot of the cases where a very slightly better organised society would have dealt with it better (young folk just out of care appeared in front of him a lot and as a single parent (widower) he worried about them rather more than the speeding idiots). We made a point of having something juicily contentious for him to get his mental teeth into...

Tygermoth

Smodlet wrote: »

I have to wonder, Tygermoth, if your motivation to become a magistrate, given your issues, is in any way prompted by your nfh?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/74164324#Comment_74164324

Heavens no.

It piqued my interest when an ex manager suggested I would do well as one. After it was mentioned I sat a few days at court and made the decision at that point. Which was over a year ago - well before my neighbour.... in fact even before we bought this house!

It just so happens it took quite some time before there was a vacancy.

(thank you again for all the PMs - you are quite a lovely set of people)