The Secret Barrister- The Wild West: The Magistrates Court

 Summary

In the second rather long chapter of The Secret Barrister- Stories of the law and how it's broken we are introduced to the very start of the United Kingdom's criminal court system where all cases start out- the magistrates' court. We are introduced at the start of this chapter to an 18-year-old who has up until now been involved in the youth court and is now at the adult's magistrates court for the first time. This young man is charged for being in a car which was 'borrowed' without permission and he is from a rather unprivileged background. The Secret Barrister uses this character to identify issues of the magistrates' court. I will no go in detail about the young man's case and what happened at his hearing as I would not want to put anyone off reading this excellently interesting book.

The idea of the magistrates' court is in some way to be judged by your peers and allow your peers to decide what you should do as a punishment if you are seen as the guilty party. The writer of the book, however, identifies that in many of the cases the magistrates are not likely to be your peers. This is mainly because a large number of the people who go to the magistrates' court are from unprivileged backgrounds where they are likely to have been abused as a child, they are likely to have lived in poverty and the parents and family may be offenders as well. Many Magistrates are likely not to have come from this unprivileged background and unless the magistrates are teachers, social workers etc they are unlikely to be aware of the struggles of a large number of the British and welsh society.  It is also important to note, as the writer says, to remember that many magistrates are from the middle class and so supports the writers' point which I mentioned above.

Magistrates are volunteers our of society who do not have any legal or law qualifications and so there is a legal advisor for the magistrates in the magistrates' court. Because these volunteers are not professional lawyers or judges they do require some training to enable them to do their job properly. However, due to budget cuts for the Criminal Justice System in the United Kingdom, there is a lack of training which therefore means in some if not many cases the Magistrates may be underqualified. 

There is also the issue of unfair trials when in some cases the accused do not have any legal representation and so maybe are persuaded to enter a guilty plea or are given a prison sentence for something that they did not do. This also includes the problem of tricking which may include persuading someone to do let's say community service and unpaid work but as they give out the sentence they actually sentence them to imprisonment. Finally, for this section, there may be some cases where the magistrates think they know more than there legal advisors and so rather than listening to the legal advisor's advice they completely ignore the legal advisor which causes lots of frustration in the courtroom, as the writer creates the impression of. 

Much of the time, those responsible for the schedules overload the schedules fitting more cases in that can actually be dealt within a day. Because of this, the Magistrates make time in three different ways which the writer mentions in his book. Because of the overloaded schedules many people are rushed in and rushed out as quick as possible and because of this do not get a fair trial. In some cases, I am sure that witnesses are not called forward and so those who are not guilty may be considered guilty. As we are talking about witnesses, the secret Barrister also mentions how a policeman's statement is often favoured and more trusted to the magistrates and so if all the witnesses plead the defendant is not guilty but the policeman says he is, the magistrates will listen to and favour the police's statement. Again, if someone does not have legal representation this can then lead to an unfair sentence. 

The United Kingdom government seem to be changing the legal system widely according to the Secret Barrister and one change they have made is to reduce the number of adjournments in the magistrates' court which again puts the accused in an unfair position. Not only this means that witnesses may not be called forwards, the lawyers will not be able to buy time but also the cases are much more likely to be rushed. The barristers involved would not be able to change the date of a hearing for various factors and so this puts many people in an unfair advantage. And as part of this, the writer mentions how the high court expects the Magistrates to get it right first time and so only have one hearing/trial per case which not only again means lack of evidence but it is also likely to mean no appeals.

In this chapter, The Secret Barrister mentions something very interesting about domestic abuse. They say the abuser will often plead not guilty because as it comes to hearing day the witness/victim normally do not turn up to give evidence and so the case is dismissed. However, if the victim does turn up then the abuser will plead guilty. The abusers all know about this and so most of the time, apparently plead not guilty as there is quite a high chance that the victim will not turn up and the case will be dismissed mainly because the court has got fed up of this case.

The Secret Barrister concludes this chapter going on about a number of different ways that the government want to further change the legal system including giving magistrates more powers and having minor cases like motoring fines done online. These are just a few of many outrageous ways the government are planning to change the legal system and it is all at a very big disadvantage to the accused. The writer also says that today it is about getting numbers through the doors and out again in as little time as possible.

In my opinion, this being the first chapter which introduces us to the issues of the UK Criminal Justice System it is very clear that the system is FUCKED in many ways and like much of the United Kingdom needs putting right again. We have not only got a broken criminal justice system but a broken country. I will mention here that the Secret Barrister mentioned that we are the only country in the world that allows our peers, the magistrates, sentence us!