Magistrates to be able to record their own verdicts in Single Justice cases
Magistrates will soon have the option to record case outcomes for themselves when deciding cases using the Single Justice Procedure (SJP).
Magistrates who have completed the relevant training will soon be able to choose to enter and submit the results of Single Justice cases directly onto our Common Platform case management system.
They will have direct access to the relevant areas of the system, and will be able to record their own decisions without needing to wait for them to be entered by a court official. However, they will still be advised and supported by a qualified legal professional throughout each session.
This revised operating model follows a successful pilot in London and the Midlands.
The benefits
Moving to this revised operating model will gradually increase the number of cases which can be dealt with during each SJP session.
It also means that legal advisers will have the capacity to deal with other responsibilities during a session when their support is not required by magistrates – although supporting magistrates will be their primary focus within each session.
Types of cases included
Single Justice cases are already managed on Common Platform throughout England and Wales for non-police prosecutors including the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, Transport for London, Merseyrail and TV Licensing. Magistrates will be able to record their own decisions on all these types of cases under the new model when it goes live.
It will also include SJP cases for additional train, bus and tram operators as they are onboarded onto Common Platform.
We are currently running a pilot in the south-west looking at traffic cases to see whether it would be appropriate to extend this model in future to include police road traffic SJP cases.
Phased approach
We will follow a phased transition from 27 November 2023 onwards, with a tailored schedule in each region for rolling out the new process. Transition begins with a legal adviser working alongside each magistrate – although this model will ultimately enable up to three magistrates to work remotely with a single legal adviser.
The rest of the process, and the way in which magistrates make decisions about Single Justice cases, will remain unchanged.