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Magistrates are drawn from all sections of our community in West Hertfordshire. We are lay people without legal qualifications, who work on a voluntary basis. Many of us are also in paid employment, and agree time away from work with our employers to fulfil our duties as magistrates.

These pages will tell you about the application process, and what we are looking for when we interview applicants and make recommendations for appointment. You are very welcome to visit your local magistrate’s court at any time to see the work of the court, and decide whether you would like to be a magistrate. It's advisable, but not essential, to ring the courthouse beforehand to find our what kind of cases are scheduled on the day you intend to visit. We also hold open evenings at the courts, when you can watch mock trials and talk to magistrates about their work.

If you would like to find out more about applying, you can click on the links below for the Ministry of Justice and Magistrates’ Association websites.

The purpose of this site is to give you information about the courts, and about the work we do as magistrates in West Hertfordshire. You may be visiting the site because you have been summoned to appear before the court, because you have a general interest in the criminal justice system, or because you are interested in becoming a magistrate. We hope you will find that this web-site answers your queries.

Both our court-houses, in Watford and Hemel Hempstead, are familiar buildings in the community. This web-site is intended to give you an insight into what happens inside them.

As magistrates, we are drawn from the local community – we understand it because we live and work and in it. It is important to us that our work is respected, and that every member of the community understands how justice is administered locally. We hope that this web-site will help you to regard the local courts as an integral part of the community of West Hertfordshire.

This low graphics version is intended for those who use a Screen Reader such as WindowsEyes or Jaws or who run a spoken text programme, such as Windows Narrator.

This page has been designed for easy navigation using keyboard shortcut keys, also known as 'access keys'. A guide to typical Microsoft Access keys will be added soon. Future plans for this site also include the creation of an RSS feed where essential information will be available to download as a voice file.

We will be bringing additional pages online over a period of a few months so please bear with us.

Become a Magistrate - General Questions

Return to Graphics Version

Message from the Bench Chairman

Become a Magistrate - Introduction

Visiting your local magistrates court