What are the disadvantages of using lay people in the criminal justice process?
There are many lay people used in government departments such as the CPS and there have been instances of their being delegated work which should properly have been handled by lawyers, e.g. considering which charges should be put to defendants. This can lead to inconsistencies, such as one case which I clearly remember where someone who had bashed up the face of his victim, breaking his nose, had his charge of GBH reduced by someone in the CPS office to one of common assault. It turned out that no lawyer had looked at the file from its setting up to the matter coming to trial! There is also inconsistency in the decisions reached by lay magistrates, who tend to be drawn from certain classes of society and not be entirely in touch with the people they are judging. They are guided by their clerk, who is legally qualified and who is supposed to advise them on the law, but some of their decisions can be arbitrary.
