On Wednesday the 3rd of October 2002 the law class was on a trip to the Magistrates Court in Newcastle town centre. The law lecturer Jen Stephenson arranged this. When first entering the second courtroom I was intimidated by the layout of the room, the quietness and the dock in the centre of the room. It was kind of scary even though you are out side of it, I would hate to imagine what it would feel like for the defendants in the dock. On this day we saw several cases being viewed by 2 of the magistrates, there were only 2 as we were told it would be much faster then 3 deciding on the punishment.
Many cases take place in one day at the court. We saw 3 of them in the morning. I believe that all the cases were dealt with fairly. However the third case was postponed until the next day, Thursday 4th October 2002. There were 2 lawyers one defending the defendant and one prosecuting. There are many details to be given before the magistrates can give punishment. This can take a lot of time and be very tedious at times. Not always do the magistrates follow the law system, they view the case and decide what will be best in both the defendants interests and the publics.
In the second case we saw the young male had been thieving items adding up to a high amount of money. We were informed that he should have received 6 months imprisonment for his crime. However he was a heroin addict and needed to commit theses crimes on a daily bases to pay for his habit, he needed help. The magistrates were aware of this problem and gave the young male 18 months community service and placed him on a program to help him stop his drug abuse. All in all the day was not only educational for law but very interesting and made me realise how people can live there lives so differently to our selves.
Newcastle Crown Court The crown court was also a combined county court. The county court deals with civil claims and also deals with family related matters involving children, whereas the crown court deals with crime such as rape, murder and theft. I visited the crown court, Newcastle on the 23rd October. When entering the court I found it intimidating as I did the magistrates court. However the security was lot harder than the magistrates. Going through metal detectors, checking that you are not armed is a procedure everyone has to go through before entering the courtrooms.
There are many courtrooms in this court centre; courtroom 1 is the high security room. The day of the visit a trial was taking place with twenty armed police officers in courtroom 1 alone. Unfortunately the class did not get to see that courtroom. We were told that the dock has bulletproof glass going from the top to bottom of the room. This was for safety purposes. The courtroom was still laid out the same way as the other courtrooms. In each court room the layout is the same. But the rooms may differ in size; some may have more rows of seats than others.
Going from front to the back of each courtroom is the judge's bench and at the end of that there is the witness box, then the clerks and the recorders bench. The next few rows are for the defence and prosecution solicitors/barristers. Then right at the back is the defendants in the dock. On the left hand side of the room is where the jury sits and on the right, near the doors to enter and exit the courtrooms are two sectioned off seating areas, one for the public and the other for the press. I did not find the courtrooms as intimidating as they were at the magistrates court even though the crown court is higher up the hierarchy.
This is because the crown courts modern and looks more approachable unlike the magistrates court appearing old and dull plus quite small. Overall I preferred the magistrate's court to the crown court even though the crown court looked better; the magistrate's court was more interesting as we saw more cases and sentencing take place. The crown court was full of trials that had been taking place since September so it was hard to understand and catch up on what had happened previously. There was more action in the magistrate's court to keep us all entertained.
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