This is the second task of Unit 23 - Aspects of the Legal System and Law-making Process, consisting of M1 and D1. For M1, you need to compare and analyse the role and function of judges, lawyers and lay people in English courts. For D1, you need to evaluate the effectiveness of lay people in Englis...
M1 - Compare and contrast the role and function of judges, lawyers and lay people within
the English courts.
In this task, I am going to explain the roles that are in English courts in which I will then compare
how the roles are different and similar to each other based on what they do. There are three
different roles in the English courts that are being discussed; Judges, Lawyers and Lay People. All
these three roles have certain things in common but some things within these roles that are
different to each other as they are all different roles in court.
Judges are the controllers of the court in which they listen to “evidence in a trial and gives a verdict”1
on certain cases depending on e which type of case it is. For Civil courts, the judge will decide on
whether the claimant’s claim from the defendant is approved and acceptable or not, whereas for
Criminal courts decide on whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty.
Lawyers are people with a legal profession in court who “represent clients in a court of law”2,
whether they’re a defendant or a claimant in a case. Lawyers practice and study law in depth in
which they can become a legal adviser for their clients in court to try and win their side of the case
when in court.
Lay People are people involved in court within a case but they’re not “trained, qualified, or
experienced”3 in a certain subject. An example of Lay People are Magistrates, who are volunteers
that attend court to hear cases within their community.
Differences
One of the differences between these three roles are how much control they have in court. The
Judge has the most control in the court because they’re the ones who are making the decision in
court, whether it is in a Civil court where the judge can decide if the claimant’s claim is valid and
acceptable or not or in a Criminal court where the judge decides whether the defendant is guilty or
not guilty depending on the case that is held in court. In comparison to Lawyers, they don’t have as
much control as Judges as Lawyers appear in court to advise their client whether they’re a defendant
or not on what to do to win their side of the case, therefore Lawyers do not have as much control as
Judges because they do not decide the verdict of the case as they’re just advising their clients in
court. Similarly, Lay People do not have much control as Judges in court either because Lay People
only appear in court to discuss the case being held in court not to make a decision or advise the
clients involved in the case as the only thing that Lay People are only entitled to an opinion.
Another difference is between Judges and Lay People in terms of Jurors judging by the decisions that
can be made in court. Judges can make more decisions than Jurors because the Judges can decide on
a verdict to whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty in a Criminal court and they also can
sentence them to prison or community service for example. On the other hand, Jurors are an
opinion in court that discuss with each other in a group to decide whether they think the defendant
is guilty or not in which they tell the judge during court if the defendant is guilty or not guilty in their
opinion but they do not have much control as Judges as the Jurors cannot give the defendant a
sentence if they were guilty.
1
Vocabulary.com. 2017. juror - Dictionary Definition : Vocabulary.com. [ONLINE] Available at: https://
www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/juror. [Accessed 18 October 2017].
2
Dictionary.com. 2017. Lawyer | Define Lawyer at Dictionary.com. [ONLINE] Available
at: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/lawyer. [Accessed 17 October 2017].
3
Lay person definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary. 2017. Lay person definition and
meaning | Collins English Dictionary. [ONLINE] Available
at: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/lay-person. [Accessed 17 October 2017].
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