LAW

Introduction to the Criminal Justice System Court Observation 2012/2013

Introduction to the Criminal Justice System Court Observation 2012/2013

Introduction

the prime attributes of United Kingdom is its ability to probide justice to the citizenz of the country, for this purpose two types of courts operate in the coutry, Crown Court and megistrate court. This report will breifly summarize the functionality of magistrate courts of England (Barclay, 2011).

Magistrates' courts of the United Kingdom have played a pivotal role in providing timely justice to the citizens of the country. Further, almost 95 percent of all criminal cases of the country are presented in the magistrate courts and are professionally dealt by magistrates of the respective court.

Acton magistrate court is situated at South Gloucestershire in England, and it was recently upgraded and moved at Tudor house. Normally, cases in Acton court are heard by a bench of three lay magistrate, that are still referred to as “justice of piece provider” that are provided strong support from a clerk, which is also considered as a qualified lawyer.

Discussion

Activities in the courtroom

It has been observed that court proceedings take a toll on the life of defendant and life of the victim; hence, to understand the proceeding of the court I visited the Acton court on Wednesday morning at 11 am sharp. At 11.05 gate of the court were opened by the guards and slowly and gradually people started to enter the courtroom.

Within a few minutes, the court was filled with people that were mostly related to all the cases that were to be presented in a day. For example, there was support staff of the court t which include the typewriter, clerk, usher, then there was a prosecution lawyer with his team, and defend lawyer with his team, there were journalist, and relatives of all the convicted people were present that were looking extremely tensed.

Functions of Key Actors in the courtroom

The magistrate of the court is considered as the chief actor of the court, with prime responsibilities to hear the evidence presented by both lawyers, and based on his theoretical knowledge and debt of the case decides the proper punishment of the particular case. Further, magistrate has the authority to transfer the case to Crown court if feels that the matter is delicate, and required the participation of the larger bench (Barclay, 2011).

The second main actors in the magistrate court were the lawyers of opposite parties with the prime responsibilities to defend their client and try their level best to free the client from the charges.

Third important actors were support staff, with prime responsibilities to call the prisoner from outside the courtroom, present facts in front of the magistrate, and record the details of all the proceedings for the record of the court. Another staff member is the typewriter, with responsibility to type all the activities that are undertaking in one sessions of the court (Welsh, 2003).

Example of a case Heard at Court

After a while magistrate entered the courtroom, and everyone that was present in the courtroom ...