A quarterly journal of 36 or so pages containing counsel’s opinions on practice points in Magistrates’ Courts ought to be welcomed by practioners in those courts. The first issue of “Court”, the Journal of Legal Practice in Magistrates’ Courts, contains eight articles by barristers and solicitors, some of whom are Members of the Inner London Magistrates’ Court Service, while others manifestly practice in those courts. According to the foreword by the editor, “The aim of this journal is to present the main legal principles which govern the selected topics as practised in Magistrates’ Courts. The aim is not to be definitive but to be clear and to act as a guide to those distinguished and learned works of reference which, because of their encyclopaedic nature, do not always commend themselves to easy reading …” Instead of the disclaimer of wanting to be “definitive” the emphasis of aiming to be comprehensive would have been more reassuring. The “learned and distinguished” reference books are getting more like encyclopaedias, and to find one’s way to a particular point, especially one of practice, needs a guide. This journal could be the answer to the prayers of the many lawyers who practice in Magistrates’ Courts. Their need is all the more great since at the beginning of their working life as lawyers, they find themselves in those courts more often than in any other. Through lack of his lawyer’s experience a litigant or defendant (or often the police as prosecutors) is not always satisfactorily represented.

Learning the ropes of Magistrates’ Court procedure is not easy. Any help a lawyer can get in this respect should be gratefully received. The articles do not appear to have been designed to illuminate the particular point of immediate concern to a defendant or his legal adviser, but rather to collect all the relevant statutory provisions, and rulings of higher courts, where applicable, relating, for example, to fines and compensation, or to the estreatment of recognizances. Together with the governing section, sub-sections and schedules of statutes are clearly marked. A lawyer may now find his way with greater ease among the pages of the accepted reference books. The journal should prosper so long as it finds subjects worthy of treatment, which may include practice in provincial courts and a bit more insight into the workings of the mind of the courts.