Magistrates’ talents are going to waste

From: Jane Nadin JP, Doncaster.

I WAS a magistrate on the Doncaster bench for over 26 years and I had to retire this past September having reached the age of 70. During my service, I held many positions.

I was a family magistrate for many years and presided over both family and adult courts. I was a mentor and appraiser so am well aware of the appraisal system and the need to keep up competencies.

I started the ‘Magistrate in the Community’ project in Doncaster going out into companies to convince HR that having a magistrate with their extensive training is a bonus to their workforce.

For 12 years, I have been associated with the Lifewise Project in Rotherham, interacting with young people, to which I have turned my attention more fully since retirement and joined now as a police volunteer.

Do I sound as if I’m losing the plot, unable to utilise my many years of experience now that there is such a shortage of experienced magistrates in England and Wales?

I am not alone, many of my contemporaries have had to leave the bench this year taking with them vast amounts of knowledge and experience.

Recruitment was halted 10 years ago, benches shrunk and those that were left grew older. Now there’s a bright new dawn, people are being recruited to take our places, but they will have no bench experience, no confidence and no skill for the next couple of years.

I could go on, but very little changes. It’s time for those who think they are in the know to wake up and realise what they have done to our judicial system. The simplest answer at this time would be to allow 70-year-olds to extend for up to five years – this gives these new people time to train and gain experience to carry on the work we have continued over our years on the bench. It is the greatest system in the world – it’s cost effective and it’s the most satisfying ‘job’ of all time. Wake up London. Think! Don’t let 660 years of the magistracy fail now.