Lay people are local members of a community who are randomly selected to hear both criminal and civil court cases using the electoral voting register. They usually hear the majority of criminal cases. They have no knowledge or legal qualifications of the law, however there are some formal requirements needed to become a lay person.
Lay magistrates and juries are required to; •Be between the ages of 18 to 65, •Have no criminal records •Not be a member of the armed forces. •be on the electoral roll (registered to vote) •Have lived in the UK for at least five years since the age of 13.During cases in the magistrate’s court, a panel of 3 lay magistrates are assisted by a legally qualified clerk to help advise them on the points of law and sentencing powers. There are no juries in the magistrate’s court however for indictable trials in the crown court, it will be heard by 12 juries who will listen to evidence provided and decide whether a person is guilty or innocent. There have been suggestions that the use of lay persons in the English legal system should be abolished as the legal system depends too much on lay people.
I will be exploring the advantages and disadvantages of the use of lay persons in the English legal system to form a conclusion on whether the use of lay persons should be abolished or not. To do this I will be using a colour code theme to highlight the advantages and disadvantages. GREEN = ADVANTAGES RED = DISADVANTAGES Magistrates Ordinary members of community serve as lay magistrates By using ordinary members in the community, it allows them to take part in the justice system. This will ensure that the justice system is based on moral and social values, helping to promote the public’s confidence in the justice system.
Using ordinary members of the community also ensures that there is a balanced amount of representation of women and men. According to the BBC news, there are only 7% of females in the high courts compared to 49% of female magistrates. 1. However, it can be argued that most lay magistrates tend to come from the middle- class background and therefore it does not provide a true representation of the local community as the majority of a community is made up of young working- class people. Lack of knowledge of the LawAs lay magistrates and juries are local people from the community and have no knowledge of the law, the court has to explain cases in simple terms in order for them to understand the proceedings.
This allows the system to be accessible to everyone else as it helps other local people with no knowledge of the law to understand what is happening. On the other hand the lack of knowledge of lay magistrates and juries can be seen as a disadvantage because they are not professionally trained and therefore rely too much on the court clerk to provide them with the knowledge. Juries BiasSome jurors may be biased against the police and may also be racially prejudice. This will not result in a fair verdict.
For example an all-white jury who are trying a person from a different race or ethnic background (e. g. Black) might come to their verdict based on their prejudice views of what they think the Afro African race are. However, Having 12 ordinary members of the community who are randomly selected through the electoral register means that there will be a cross section of the society and therefore individual prejudice views will cancel out each other ensuring in a non- bias decision.Secrecy of the jury room After hearing a trial, juries are sent into a room to deliberate about the verdict based on the evidence given.
During this time nobody apart from the jurors are allowed into the room not even the clerk. This can is an advantage because it ensures that the jurors’ decisions are not influence by media and other pressures during the discussion. It also allows the jurors to present their arguments and opinion much more freely. On the other hand, it can also be a disadvantage because nobody ever knows how the jurors came to their decision or whether they really understood the proceeding properly.
This means that a decision could have been made for the wrong reasons. Cost and Time When a person is selected to be a juror, it is compulsory that they attend to court. This means that employers have to give employees time off work to attend this service. During jury service, an employee is not paid by their employer however each juror is paid a subsistence allowance. Jurors can also claim for travel and food expenses and for loss of earnings from the court. This is an advantage because it encourages more people to participate in the justice system.
A disadvantage to this is that cases that are heard by juries are lengthier and more expensive. A jury trial is more expensive than that of a trial in the magistrate's court. In magistrate’s court, lay magistrates are not paid as it is voluntary to become lay magistrates, but juries are paid a subsistent amount of money as well as food and transport. Currently the cost of jury trials in crown courts is around ? 3 ,000 a day compared to just ? 900 in magistrates court. In conclusion, I agree that the use of lay persons in the English legal system is very important as it allows members to contribute to the justice system.
Although there are many disadvantages of the use of lay persons, I think that it is a good way to give verdicts as it is fair and keeps the justice system tied to social moral values. However, I think that in less serious cases a jury should not be required. Although the use of juries date back to the Magna Carta in 1215 which states that it is the civil right for people to have a jury trial, by sending less serious offences to the magistrates court, it saves money and allows judges to deal with serious offences such as murder and rape much quicker. References * .
(n. d). Magistrates.Available: http://www. lawteacher.
net/english-legal-system/resources/magistrates-2. php. Last accessed 21st Jan. * King, A. (2011).
Juries. Available: http://www. amaliaking. co. uk/law/criminal-court-lay-people/aqa-a-level-study-notes-juries-advantages-disadvantages.
Last accessed 22nd Jan. * . (n. d). Legal personnel. Available: http://www.
thestudentroom. co. uk/wiki/Revision:OCR_AS_Law_-_Legal_Personnel. Last accessed 22nd Jan 2012. * Lane, M. (n.
d). Why are there so few women judges? Available: http://news. bbc. co.
uk/1/hi/magazine/3383729. stm. Last accessed 22nd Jan. 2012
