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The report The Judiciary in the Magistrates' Court (2000) found that at the time the cost of using lay magistrates was £52.10 per hour compared with the cost of using a stipendiary at £61.90 an hour. [86] In 2010, offence-to-completion time for defendants whose case was committed or sent for trial at the Crown Court was an average of 187 days.
A magistrate in England and Wales can refer to a Justice of the Peace (also known as lay magistrate) or a stipendiary or police magistrate, which have been renamed as district judges. Subcategories This category has the following 2 subcategories, out of 2 total.
In England and Wales, a magistrates' court is a lower court which hears matters relating to summary offences and some triable either-way matters. Some civil law issues are also decided here, notably family proceedings. In 2010, there were 320 magistrates' courts in England and Wales; by 2020, a decade later, 164 of those had closed.
A resident magistrate is a title for magistrates used in certain parts of the world, that were, or are, governed by the British. Sometimes abbreviated as RM, it refers to suitably qualified personnel—notably well versed in the law—brought into an area from outside as the local magistrate, typically to be the guiding hand amongst other lay magistrates.
A justice of the peace may sit at any magistrates' court in England and Wales, but in practice, they are appointed to their local bench (a colloquial and legal term for the local court). Justices of the peace will normally sit as a panel of three, with two as a minimum in most cases, except those cases dealt with under the single justice procedure.
They also form a strict hierarchy of importance, in line with the order of the courts in which they sit, so that judges of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales are given more weight than district judges sitting in county courts and magistrates' courts. On 1 April 2020 there were 3,174 judges in post in England and Wales. [1]
Stipendiary magistrates exercised the same powers as a sheriff (judge) when dealing with summary criminal cases. Like sheriffs, stipendiary magistrates wore wig and gown in court. Stipendiary magistrates were approved solicitors or advocates, and they handled similar summary cases as sheriffs, for example drink driving, dangerous driving and ...
Because magistrates are unpaid members of the local community and do not need to have legal qualifications, they are advised in court on matters of law, practice and procedure by legal advisers. In 2010 there were 49 full-time justices' clerks in England and Wales. In 2015 they numbered 26.