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Magistrate derives from the Middle English word magistrat, denoting a "civil officer in charge of administrating laws" (c.1374); from the Old French magistrat; from the Latin magistratus, which derives from magister (master), from the root of magnus (great). [14] Today, in England and Wales, the word is used to describe a justice of the peace.
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.
Additional district magistrate : The government may also appoint any executive magistrate to be an additional district magistrate who shall have all or any of the powers of a district magistrate under the code or under any other law for the time being in force, as the government may direct.
From the magistrates' courts, an appeal can be taken to the Crown Court on matters of fact and law or, on matters of law alone, to the Administrative Court of King's Bench Division of the High Court, which is called an appeal "by way of case stated". The magistrates' courts are also inferior courts and are therefore subject to judicial review.
The Supreme Court is independent of the government of the UK, of Parliament, and of the court services of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It takes appeals from the Appeals Courts of England and Wales and of Northern Ireland, and Scotland's High Court of the Judiciary (civil cases only [31]). The President of the Supreme Court ...
The maximum sentence a magistrates' court can impose is six months imprisonment for a single offence, or 12 months imprisonment for multiple offences, and an unlimited fine. [7] A magistrates' court is the starting point for the majority of the most serious types of crime that are later committed to the Crown Court.
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 justices' clerk had the powers of a single magistrate, for example to issue a summons, adjourn proceedings, extend bail, issue a warrant for failing to surrender to bail where there is no objection on behalf of the accused, dismiss an information where no evidence is offered, request a pre-sentence report, commit a defendant for trial without consideration of the evidence and give directions ...