ABSTRACT
The 460 or so magistrates’ courts are the first layer of the court structure and can be found in most towns. Each of these courts has a ‘bench’ which is staffed by magistrates who are, in the main, part-time, unpaid laypersons. There are over 30,000 lay magistrates, known as Justices of the Peace (JPs). The fact that the vast majority of criminal cases are judged by these non-professional, part-time members of the community provides a unique aspect to the criminal justice system of England and Wales. In addition to JPs, there are a small number, around a hundred, of paid, legally qualified magistrates; now known as district judges, until 2000 these professional magistrates were called stipendiary magistrates. District judges are full-time members of the judiciary who have the same powers as benches of two lay magistrates. They usually sit in the bigger, urban courts with particularly heavy caseloads and tend to hear the lengthier and more complex cases that come before magistrates’ courts. As well as district judges there are also deputy district judges who sit in magistrates’ courts not as full-time professionals but on a fee-paid basis – and who can apply to become district judges after serving for a minimum of two years or 40 days in court. It is likely that there will be pressure to extend the professional magistracy in the future (an issue we will return to when looking at the appointment and background of the judiciary later in the chapter). However, in spite of this, it is important to remember that the vast majority of criminal cases in magistrates’ courts are heard by a lay, part-time judiciary.
