Juliet Townsend

He is cheap, he is pure, he is capable – and he isn’t doomed

issue 14 September 2002

In any discussion about the English judicial system with foreigners, they are always amazed to learn that more than 90 per cent of the criminal cases in this country are tried by unpaid lay magistrates. In a society where an applicant for the most unskilled job is required to be able to produce some paper qualification, the magistracy sails on with a magnificent disregard for such irrelevancies. Its requirements are simple but demanding: good character, common sense, fairness and good judgment, and it expects and largely succeeds in finding these qualities in people from widely varying backgrounds.

Magistrates have never had a good press. People identify more readily with juries, knowing that next week they could find themselves serving on one. Magistrates, by their process of selection and training, are to some extent set apart, although nowadays they are broadly representative of their community, or at least the more mature and responsible elements within it.

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