People in Law CasesSolicitors There are about 50,000 solicitors, a number which is rapidly increasing, and they make up by far the largest branch of the legal profession in England and Wales. They are found in every town, where they deal with all the day-to-day work of preparing legal documents for buying or selling houses, making wills, etc. Solicitors also work on court cases for their clients, prepare cases for barristers to present in the higher courts, and may represent their client in a magistrates’ court. Barristers There are about 5,000 barristers who defend or prosecute in the higher courts. Although solicitors and barristers work together on cases, barristers specialise in representing clients in courts and the training and career structures for the two types of lawyer are quite separate. In court, barristers wear wigs and gowns in keeping with the extreme formality of the proceedings. The highest level of barristers have the title QC (Queen’s Counsel). Judges There are a few hundred judges, trained as barristers, who preside in more serious cases. There is no separate training for judges. Jury A jury consists of twelve people (jurors) who are ordinary people chosen at random from the Electoral Register (the list of people who can vote in elections). The jury listen to the evidence given in court in certain criminal cases and decide whether the defendant is guilty or innocent. If the person is found guilty, the punishment is passed by the presiding judge. Juries are rarely used in civil cases. Magistrates There are about 30,000 magistrates (Justices of the Peace, or JPs), who judge cases in the lower courts. They are usually unpaid and have no formal legal qualifications, but they are respectable people who are given some training. Coroners Coroners have medical or legal training (or both), and inquire into violent or unnatural deaths. Clerks of the Court Clerks look after administrative and legal matters in the courtroom. The Police Each of Britain’s fifty-two police forces is responsible for law enforcement in its own area. In addition there are various national and regional connections (for example, in areas of training or the transfer of criminal records), and local forces cooperate with each other. Some special services, such as The Fraud Squad (who investigate financial crimes), are available to any local force in England and Wales. In general, however, the local police forces work independently under their own Chief Constables. Each force is maintained by a local police authority. The exception is London, where the Metropolitan Police are responsible to the Home Secretary. Police duties cover a wide range of activities, from traffic control to more specialised departments such as river police. Each dependent force has a uniformed branch and a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) with detectives in plain clothes. In addition the police authorities in England and Wales employ 40,000 civilians and nearly 5,000 traffic wardens. Britain has relatively few police – approximately one policeman for every 400 people – and traditionally they are armed only with truncheons except in special circumstances. However, recent years have seen some major changes in police policy in response to industrial disputes and inner city violence in Great Britain. There has been an increase in the number of special units trained in crowd and riot control and in the use of firearms. The number of police has risen along with the crime rate. Courts in England and Wales are arranged on a hierarchical basis.
Text B
|
