With magistrate shortages already acute, Carter argues that proposals to expand lay participation risk collapse. Instead, she suggests a specialist ‘trial-only’ magistrates’ panel to handle cases up to 18 months’ custody, freeing the Crown Court for more serious trials. The numbers are stark: nearly half of custodial sentences fall within that bracket.
Her model would widen recruitment, cut training burdens and slash delays, all while preserving peer judgment. Creating an intermediate court with judges sitting alone, she warns, would be ‘controversial and unnecessary’.
The prize is faster justice for victims and defendants alike—without abandoning the constitutional principle that trials should be decided by the community, not sidelined by systemic gridlock.
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