magistrates duties apart from hearing cases what else does he do?

Question

what range of covered by magistrates court, I mean what is magistrates duties apart from hearing cases what else does he do?

and the advantage and the disadvange of have ordinary public as magistrates?

Answer 1

Here is a link about becoming a magistrate. http://www.dca.gov.uk/magistrates/index.htm
A magistrate has to do a great deal of signing of warrants and other court documents. He hears applications for summonses and for grants of citizenship and signs the relative papers. He accepts declarations under oath from individuals. He considers the position of people owing money to the court in the Means Court and if necessary imposes prison sentences for default. He considers adoption cases and child welfare cases. He spends considerable time being trained in his role.

The lay magistracy saves the taxpayer considerable sums of money. However, there is no doubt that having lay people sit in benches of three where there may be conflict among them in the decision making process makes the wheels of justice grind more slowly. While they bring a wealth of general experience of life to bear in reaching their decisions, they can also be more easily distracted from the main issues than a legally trained stipendiary/district judge. Skill has to be applied in arranging benches so that magistrates who are known to be particularly harsh/lenient or to have particular bees in their bonnet are placed with magistrates of a contrary persuasion to achieve a balance, but this in turn can lead to the kind of conflict which I referred to. Lay magistrates can sometimes suffer from problems which would be addressed in the case of a stipendiary/district judge -- for example, deafness.
As a point of comparison between the two types of magistrate, I shall conclude with a conversation overheard some time ago in the foyer of a magistrates' court
Solicitor: Your case is going before a stipe.
Client: What does that mean?
Solicitor: It means you cut out all the nonsense and behave yourself. He won't want to waste time.

Answer 2

Magistrates hear the vast majority of criminal cases in England and Wales. In cases that can be heard in the Magistrates court only, Magistrates decide the facts and make all decisions relating to pints of law; in more serious cases they transfer cases to the Crown Court to be heard by a jury. Magistrates also determine, in cases where jurisdiction is in dispute, in what court a case should be heard.

The advantageous of trial in the Magistrates Court are that the sentencing powers are limited (although they do have power to transfer cases to the Crown Court in appropriate cases). Trial in Magistrates court are also quick and a lot less formal than in a Crown Court.

Disadvantages are that Magistrates hear the same "stories" time and time again whereas juries are empanelled for one case only and are generally considered more sympathetic to defendants.

Answer 3

issuing summons,warants,remand cases etc. also, conduct inquiry and death inquest. adv of it is we get a partial mag. hopefully. disadv. is tht he may not know d law n how to apply it. mag has duties prov. by law as well. n they may conduct prel. hearings.