MORE DISTRICT JUDGES: FEWER LAY MAGISTRATES

I was reading an article yesterday on the state of the current housing market. Its central observation was that too many sellers are attracted to the agent who appears to give the best i.e. highest value for their property only to find that many weeks or months down the line the house is still for sale with limited interest being shown. Such sellers either have to offer the contract to another agent with a realistic i.e. lower valuation or remove it from the market to re offer months later.

In April the MOJ began a marketing campaign to enlist thousands of new magistrates.  It would appear that like the house vendor who can`t sell their house the recruitment drive has been re launched today.  At a time of financial belt tightening for so many families is it any wonder that there is a dearth of capable people willing to sacrifice a minimum of 13 full days worth of earning potential or leave from employment to enter a system of which truly most are unable to imagine.  Added to that time commitment there is additional need for training days and an awareness that social rules applying to judges at the High Court are applied equally also to the newest recruit to the magistracy.  

Unlike the estate agent the MOJ does not have a financial market as a guide to its selling the position of a lay magistrate to the general public.  Either it reduces the requirements of candidates or accepts that its offer is unacceptable at current standards. 

With the MOJ under the spotlight more in the last year than in the last decade it will take only a single academic study to show that full time district judges without the need for a legal advisor can take over from lay magistrates at no additional cost when their increased efficiency is taken into account, for that hitherto unthinkable change to be seriously proposed.  Like so much ad hoc reasoning within this government as with its predecessor this problem will be pushed into the neverland of tomorrow as so many others have been since 2024.