Posted: December 30th, 2015

“Over 95% of defendants to criminal charges are proceeded against at the magistrates’ court (1.6 million in 2013

“Over 95% of defendants to criminal charges are proceeded against at the magistrates’ court (1.6 million in 2013…according to the Court Statistics). It should be obvious from this statistic that magistrates’ courts do not deal with trivia, although many members of the public and even lawyers and judges underestimate their importance.” [P. Darbyshire, Darbyshire on the English Legal System

(London, Sweet & Maxwell, 2014) p.151] To what extent do you agree with this statement?