Magistrate Court

Day 10

May 18th

On day ten off my trip, I went with the justice study groups to visit the Highbury Magistrate Court. At the Magistrate Courthouse, we were given a quick run-through by a current judge of the English Court System and how the English Court System works. After that, we broke up into small groups and actually got to go into a couple courtrooms and sit in on occurring cases. I was very interesting to watch what happens in a Magistrate Court. I learned that case could be passed on to a Crown Court if the defendant pleads not guilty  and I learned the case could be resolved in a matter of minutes, if the defendant pleads guilty. If the defendant pleads guilty the judge will then determine a sentence for the defendant and case will be over. This allows a lot of cases to be handled as quickly as possible. I looked like an assembly line they were gong through the cases so fast.