Club meeting at Ashmores

16th September 2021 Magistrates and Courts – Pete Leatherland

Pete  talked about the role and responsibilities of the Bench Chair, with an overview together with the impact of Covid. He outlined that Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire act as a cluster and are the first link in a chain that leads to the Lord Chief Justice.  The Courts and Tribunal System keep the Bench informed of any changes, maintain standards, deal with pastoral matters, transfer applications and links to the local community.

Both Youth and Family issues have to be considered and an important aspect is keeping each Magistrate up to pace with the number of sittings they have to achieve.  Covid impacted on this reducing the number from 3 to 2, but they are now moving back to normal.  All criminal cases actually start in the Magistrates Courts and although Pete went into a great deal of detail to give us a better understanding, this brief summary is sufficient for the Public domain, in such a sensitive arena.

He however did mention the historic back ground to the Derby Magistrates Court, which appears as the Main Picture in this report.

His presentation stimulated a number of questions which were expertly fielded ….David E. provided a Vote of thanks for the wide ranging and informative talk and members joined with a show of their appreciation.                 AR