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Using Laypeople Compared To Legal Personnel In The Criminal Justice Trial Process

767 Words4 Pages

Report Evaluating the Impact of Using Laypeople as opposed to Legal Personnel in the Criminal Justice Trial Process. Lay people There are many positive impacts of using lay people in criminal trials. One of which being that it reflects the community's standards and values. By including the public’s opinion, the public can have more confidence in the legal system because the decisions made represent societal norms. Whereas with judges, they are where they are needed and not necessarily part of the community. Lay people such as magistrates or jurors know the issues being faced by the community and can therefore have a better judgement on the case. Jurors can provide a different viewpoint, one a judge might not have initially thought of, which …show more content…

Due to their extensive training, they understand legal precedents which leads to more accurate and consistent outcomes in trials. Being consistent with the application of legal principles makes the outcomes of a case more predictable. This is important for maintaining the rule of law and ensures similar cases are treated the same. Lay people such as jurors are likely to not have any experience and therefore may result in making decisions based on their emotions and not legal precedents or legal factors. Legal personnel, especially judges, are trained to remain impartial and not base their decisions on personal beliefs or emotions, but rather on legal facts. It is important to make sure a trial remains fair. Lay people may struggle to do this due to lack of training. A downside to using legal personnel is that they can forget about public perspectives and values. This could lead to a decision that doesn't reflect social norms, which can knock the public's confidence in the legal system. This is why lay people like jurors are important - it encourages public involvement and ensures the legal system stays

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