PartA-knowledge
Magistrate-the person who hears a case and make the decisions in the magistrates court. He/She will decide what will happen to the case, whether the case would be put off for an extra day or whether the case would go to another court.the magistrate also decides whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty and give out the penalties and/or punishments to the defendant if necessary.[1]
Bench/Court clerk- a person who sits next to or near a magistrate or coroner.A bench clerk’s job is to call people into the court and acounces the cases.The bench clerk will direct people where to stand, administer the oath or affirmation to the witness(es) and read the charges out in a criminal proceeding.[1]
Accused-The person who is accused of a crime, also referred to as the defendant.[1]
Defence Solicitor-The person who represents the accused in court.[1]
Police prosecutor-the person who is presenting a case against the defendant in court.[1]
Police prosecutor VS accused
1)On Thursday the 22nd February 2018, we visited the magistrates court.
2)we went into court room 34.
3)The case was about the police prosecutor vs the accused.
4)the type of case was a Drugs and weapons case.
5)The accused(defendant) was charged for an unlawful possession of a semi-automatic shotgun and possession of cannabis(28g), both which the defendant pleaded guilty.
6)But the defendant disagrees that he has ADHD[2](Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ).
7)The police prosecutor also stated that he is currently unemployed, lives with his grandparents, and has a relatively clean criminal history.
8)In the end of the case, the defendant was convicted and fined $500.
Part B- Interpretation/Evaluation
Going to court has it’s positive and negative sides.When a defendant goes to court,the defendant can defend him/herself while Not going to court is basically saying that you are guilty and will be most likely be charged the highest fine/punishment posible and and extra fine for not attending the court when summoned as it is a serious offence to the courts.As I observed in the case, the defendant attended the case but pleaded guilty so the magistrate did not fined him as much and not give out a harsh punishment.Unlike a case i witness before where the defendant not only was uncooperative but did not even attend the the case which was why she was charged with the highest fine possible which was $3000 with a extra fine of $99 for not attending at all.With these reasons, attending the court has more advantages and lesser disadvantages than not attending the court case.
Part C-Knowledge
The drugs and alcohol court a court that treats the offenders with a severe substance use disorder contributing to their behaviour.This court targets adult offenders to be supervised and take treatments to help them with their alcohol and/or drugs dependency issues and criminal offending.
The magistrates court is different compared to the drugs and alcohol court because the magistrates court deals with low charges and the magistrate can decide if a case should be solve in a higher court(district,supreme).While the drugs and alcohol court specialises in only drugs and alcohol related matters like drug offending,drink driving,drunk fighting and so on.The magistrates court is not a court specializing in only a few types of cases but it solves all the smaller crime cases like accidents,fines and so on.
Part D-Interpretation/Evaluation
The aim of the Drugs and Alcohol Court is to help offenders who made an offence by taking illegal drugs,drinking too much alcohol,drink driving,drunk fights, etc.The offenders are strictly monitored by the court and are sentences to undertake treatments depending on the offence,The goal of this is to reduce future offending.Another purpose of the Drug and Alcohol Court is to reduce the number of people that offended the laws and give them proper treatment to be rehabilitated.The features of the court are regular and random drug testing, regular appearances so the offender stay on track and incentives for offenders to continue to engage with treatment. The purpose of the Drugs and Alcohol Court is to improve the community safety by rehabilitating the offenders so they won’t become offenders again and reintegrate them back to the community as productive members of society.The eligibility requirements for the treatment order are that the offender has to be an adult that pleads guilty.
The Drugs and Alcohol Court is most definitely needed as it is necessary in the law’s attempts to achieve just, fair and equitable outcomes for society because research worldwide has shown how the drugs and alcohol court works, the results show that the drugs and alcohol court lessened the likelihood of the participants reoffending.The drug and specialist court found that court-based intervention programs can reduced drug related offences in a cost effective way.These evidence show that the drug and alcohol court if an important and necessary court to achieve a just, fair and equitable outcome for society.