Magistrate's Court

So on Friday we went to a Magistrate's court. It was really neat. The Magistrate's court is the lower court. They can only sentence up to 6 months in prison. If the offense is more serious than the trial is sent to the Crown's court. In the Crown's court, the judges wear long wigs and the lawyers (which they call solicitors) wear short wigs. I didn't get to see that however.
We watched three different cases. The first one was three people who had been arrested for squatting and burglary. They were given curfew and given a parole officer for 6 months. The defendants do not sit with their lawyer. They have to sit in the dock, which is a seperate section that is surrounded by glass. They let us sit in there in between trials and it felt like being in a cage. The court system definitely uses intimidation tactics. When the magistrate's walk into the courtroom they stare down the defendant. They seem really serious and intimidating in the courtroom but we got to meet them after and they were really nice guys. They let us ask them a bunch of questions. They are volunteers who get appointed and have all different kinds of backgrounds. They have to go through training each year though.
There is a barrister who is legally trained and serves as somewhat of a mediator between the magistrates and lawyers. They said that if they ever have any questions they can ask him. There is one chair magistrate who talks in the courtroom. The other two magistrates cannot talk in the courtroom but are have the same powers in the conference room.