Law in Practice: A Magistrate’s Visit to Our Classroom

By Maliha 12FSE

During one of our Law lessons, we were fortunate to have a magistrate who works in the City of London Magistrates Court, Gerald Dowler, JP visit us and share his experiences and knowledge about magistrates and their roles in the legal system. From this visit, we were able to get more insight about the types of courts that a magistrate sits in and the sentencing procedure they conduct. For example, we learnt about the Remand Court which is where the defendant is first kept after being arrested by the police, before being tried in front of the magistrates. We also developed our knowledge further about what happens during the pre-sentencing process and how that leads the magistrates to conclude the length of a defendant’s sentence and how two factors - aggravating and mitigating factors - increase or decrease the sentence. This allowed us to get a more detailed analysis of the process that the defendant must go through before being given a just sentence and how the magistrates ensure they have conducted a fair trial.

In addition to learning new information, we also had a chance to practice the procedure that a magistrate conducts 20-30 times a day. We practiced our legal skills by using the magistrates’ sentencing guidelines which magistrates follow when deciding the defendant’s sentence and trying it out ourselves by following the guidelines and coming up with a reasonable sentence for a case where the defendant committed a common assault against an emergency worker. This helped us take our first step into understanding the actual work that goes on in the court rooms and what the magistrates do to ensure they properly conduct their role of being a Justice of the Peace.

To end the lesson, Gerald Dowler, JP taught us one key takeaway is that “justice has been served as long as the decision you come to is what you believe is the right decision even though it is not the same decision that another court might come to”.

I learnt more thoroughly about what is considered an aggravating and mitigating factor and ways these factors can influence the final decision the magistrates come to when choosing the level of punishment the defendant deserves. - Khadija 12ACY

I was able to learn in depth about how judicial interpretation can impact the severity of the sentence and the different categories a crime might fall under which could aggravate or mitigate the sentence. - Nuha 12CRN

I learnt that when sentencing a person, the magistrates look at the offence, and not the circumstance of the defendant, so they don’t impose an unfair and unequal sentence for different people just because one defendant might be living in tougher conditions than another. - Maliha 12FSE