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Summary Public Services - Understanding the legal system - P2
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Directly from my public services course which I achieved maximum marks in, this covers P2 of the understanding the legal system module
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Describe the roles of judges, lawyers and lay people in criminal trials in England and WalesThe role that each position has within the English legal system is important to allowing it to function
and ensuring that justice is being served to everyone. Below the different positions and the roles that
each has is described.
Judges
The role of the judge is to proceed over the court and ensure that all rules, regulations and
agreements are being upheld. The judge will ensure that these are all being observed by everyone
present and that the trial is being properly conducted in all respects. With no jury present the judge
will have the verdict of guilt, if there is a jury then the role of the judge is to be a tribunal of the law
and the jury will be the tribunal of guilt, this means that the jury decides the final verdict and the
judge will ensure that its within the law and will later carry out sentencing.
Lawyers
The role of the lawyer is fill out the paperwork and legislation in reparation for the court, they also
advise the accused, make arrangements for the accused and instructs the prosecution and defence
respectively before court. Once in a court what they are doing determines their role. If they are in
the defence there role is to convince the jury, judge or both that the accused is innocent or to try for
a smaller punishment. If they are in the prosecution then they are aiming for a conviction. This is too
ensure that things are fair and evidence given can be disputed or used by either side for whichever
conclusion they are trying to achieve.
Lay people
Lay people are present in court usually in the form of a jury though they are used as specialist
advisers in some courts or in certain cases. The role of lay people is too bring in people with
experiences and backgrounds that are not legal and have a fresh opinion on situations. Local
knowledge is present through this which can be in certain locations very important especially where
regionalisms are very distinctive. There is also the benefit of having inexpensive personnel making
the legal process cheaper. These lay people when present as a jury will have the decision of whether
the accused is guilty or not and their role is too fairly judge their peers based on the evidence
presented by both defence and prosecution. When they are present as specialist advisers they are
there to advice, this may be part of the defence or prosecution and there advice may be used as
evidence, they can also advise a judge on the best course of action to take, though this only occurs in
rare cases and ultimately the final decision on what’s best is made by the judge and not the Lay
person advising.
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