ABSTRACT
Legal judging is a problem-solving domain where problems are always ill-structured. Solutions are inconclusive, and important features of the problem space become apparent only after initial processing has begun. The information that is available comes from different sources at different stages of the judging process, and is constrained by legal rules and by other people. In Australian criminal courts, the stipendiary magistrate usually judges cases alone, sometimes against the intentions and efforts of other participants. Thus, the disposition of people's affairs is dependent on the magistrate's expertise at forming solutions as judgments and penalties in indefinite and externally constrained problem spaces.
