Read the text about the Magistrates’ Court and do the exercises below.

Anna Posyniak‑Dutka In the Magistrates’ Court

A few months ago my mum got a letter from the court. At first, she was a bit worried and tried to remember if she had broken the law. Fortunately, it soon turned outturned out [turn out]turned out that she wasn’t accused ofaccused of [accuse somebody of]accused of anything. The opposite, she was being called to attend a court trialcourt trialcourt trial as a magistratemagistratemagistrate. How was that possible? My mum had nothing to do with law! She is an accountantaccountantaccountant! I started my own investigationinvestigationinvestigation to find out more about the Magistrates’ CourtMagistrates’ CourtMagistrates’ Court.

The Magistrates’ Court deals withdeals with [deal with]deals with minor offencesminor offences [minor offence]minor offences, like speedingspeedingspeeding, theftthefttheft, or assaultassaultassault. Magistrates also help to solve disputessolve disputes [solve a dispute]solve disputes over money or propertypropertyproperty which can happen between neighbours or other people. My mother was asked to attend a trial in which the defendantdefendantdefendant, the person who was brought to court, was accused of a few traffic offencestraffic offences [traffic offence]traffic offences. They were speeding and driving without valid insurancevalid insurancevalid insurance.

As I mentioned before, my mum is not a lawyer, but I learnt that magistrates do not need legal qualificationslegal qualificationslegal qualifications. They are members of the public. Can everyone be called to be a magistrate? Almost. You just need to be over the age of 18, of good character, and you also must live in the local area for at least a year. And you need to applyapplyapply! If you are chosen, you will be given basic training to be able to make judgementsmake judgements [make a judgement]make judgements on the cases that are presented to you. My mum really enjoyed learning about the legal procedureslegal procedures [legal procedure]legal procedures connected with her casecasecase.

What happens in the Magistrates’ Court is more informal than in other types of courts. There is no juryjuryjury, just the three magistrates, a legal advisor to the magistrateslegal advisor to the magistrateslegal advisor to the magistrates, who is a person with legal training whose job is to make sure that all legal procedures are followed. The two other trained lawyers in the courtroom are a prosecution solicitorprosecution solicitorprosecution solicitor, who is trying to prove that the defendant is guilty, and a defence solicitordefence solicitordefence solicitor, who defends his or her client.

My mum was quite stressed before the first hearinghearinghearing because it’s a great responsibility to decide whether or not somebody is guilty of a crime. What added to her stress was the fact that the Magistrates’ Court hearings are open to the public, so I went to see what was happening in the courtroom. The case my mum was involved in turned out to be quite simple. The prosecuting solicitor presented strong evidence and the defendant’s guilt was quite obvious. He was given a big finefinefine, which he wasn’t very pleased about.

In the future, I’m going to apply to be a magistrate, too, although it’s not a paid job. It’s important more people do public servicepublic servicepublic service. I can't wait to help others!

1 Źródło: Anna Posyniak‑Dutka, licencja: CC BY-SA 3.0.