Site last updated
November 2007

Trafford Magistrates’ New Bench Chairman (w.e.f. 1st Jan 2008)

My name is Michael Hyman and I am proud to have been elected Chairman of the Trafford Bench after two years as Deputy Chairman. I became a magistrate in 1999 as, apart from wanting to put something into the community, it part fulfilled a lost opportunity in my life. After school and just two weeks before taking up a place to study law at Manchester University, I decided to go into business and changed my place to economics. No regrets, but I often wondered what might have been, and becoming a magistrate has given me a second chance to enter the legal world! I have never been afraid to say that I am a magistrate – there are fortunately significantly more people in Trafford wanting the courts to protect them, than people out there committing offences - and people are inevitably keen to find out more about what it means to do this job.

I find the work in court extremely interesting and I strongly believe in local justice being administered by local magistrates who know the local problems. My concerns about the environment in which children grow up led me to take additional training and thereby to sit in the Youth Court. There are different challenges here and I find it difficult not to compare the ages of the children in court with what my sons were doing at the same time. I have also been a member of our Probation Liaison Committee for some years, chairing it for the last two years. Although I do believe that custody has an important role to play in our sentencing options, punishments carried out in the community do play an increasingly significant part. So our relationship with Trafford Probation is crucial if these sentences are to be effective in reducing re-offending and protecting the public. The work in court is very different to the usual problems of running a business and the excellent training has allowed me to develop new skills which I even use in my everyday working life.

I sit in court, on average, one day per fortnight but I am aware that becoming Chairman of the Bench will necessitate in my spending far more time at court, as I am now responsible for the welfare and problems of over 150 magistrates. If I thought I already managed my time well, I’ll now need to step up a couple of gears!! Of course there are now more committees to attend, some just for Trafford matters, others for judicial issues across Greater Manchester. I am also the public face of the Bench and so want to improve and develop links throughout the communities of Trafford, especially in respect of broadening the diversity of Trafford magistrates. Fortunately, I have two enthusiastic and experienced Deputy Chairmen who will shoulder some of the burden. Being self-employed means that I can fit my work commitments around my court commitments.

I have fantastic support from my wife Jacqui and our two sons, Ben and Rob. To be candid, without their support, I would not have even contemplated taking on such an obligation! All our friends know that I am a magistrate but that does not seem to have put anyone off! People are always interested in what it is like to be a magistrate and I am happy to discuss anything that would have been mentioned in open court (but not, of course, what may have been said in our retiring room). You do get occasional calls from people asking advice about things like Gatso cameras and what ‘their friend’ (and it’s always ‘their friend’) is likely to get for speeding!

Being a magistrate has not changed since I started, except that there is much more to learn about as legislation continues to change. Human Rights legislation and the types of sentences open to us changed a few years ago. Now, the latest buzzword is CJSSS (Criminal Justice Simple Speedy Summary) which intends us to be able to progress cases through court without the current level of adjournments and delays. Legislation needs to change, of course, as the problems confronting society continue to change. However, as I mentioned before, we have really good training which ensures that we are always up to speed.

Sitting in court, whilst not something you would ‘enjoy’, is nevertheless very fulfilling.  I have always had a strong sense of fair play and justice, and want to see Trafford as a place where children can grow up and adults can go about their business in safety. So I do find it satisfying to believe that actions we take, in dealing with people who want to make life difficult or unpleasant for others, will improve the lives of the people of Trafford. It can also be a frustrating experience – seeing a trial collapse because witnesses have not turned up, wondering what to do with an habitual shoplifter who has already had all the available sentences from conditional discharges to custody, or listening firsthand to the desperate story of someone whose life has been wrecked by the misery of drug abuse. We all find it frustrating when people criticise magistrates for being too lenient, but it is easy to criticise when not in possession of all the facts of a case or, occasionally, when our sentencing guidelines do not allow us the solution we might prefer.

Nevertheless, I am very proud to be a magistrate and would recommend it to anyone who feels strongly about what is right and what is wrong, and believes that they could do it. The old idea of a magistrate being a certain type of person has well and truly gone and the Bench is now more representative of our community than ever before. We still need to improve our diversity and I hope that anyone reading these thoughts, from parts of the community not properly represented in the wider criminal justice system, will think seriously about putting themselves forward. The high level of training, and the appointment of mentors to guide those newly appointed, also means that no magistrate is less prepared to do the job. I remember the first time I sat and we retired to consider our sentence on my first case – the first thing the very experienced chairman, said to me was “I may have been on the Bench for 20 years, but your opinion has equal weight to mine”. And she meant it! We are appointed because we can demonstrate clear thinking and common sense, and bring an ordinary person’s perspective to a sometimes over-complicated legal world.

I do believe that magistrates need to get out into the community more than they have done in the past. If the community is to have greater confidence in us, then they must have more opportunities to discuss issues and concerns with us. I wholly support the community initiatives such as ‘Magistrates in the Community’ whereby magistrates visit schools to explain our part in the criminal justice system and ‘You be the Judge’ where the audience is able to vote a sentence for a variety of offender scenarios. It’s surprising how often the audience turns out to be more lenient than the magistrates – not the other way around!! 

I suppose that I should not be surprised by the number of people I speak to who have an opinion about policing, their fear of crime, and what the courts (and therefore magistrates and judges) should be doing. I usually say to them that, whilst only few of us could ever become judges, becoming a magistrate is open to most of us and, if you do feel strongly about sentencing and justice, then perhaps you should consider putting yourself forward? As Chairman of the Bench, I am happy to talk and to meet with people and you can write to me about becoming a magistrate at Trafford Magistrates’ Court, P O Box 13, Ashton Lane, Sale M33 7NR. If you are interested, please get in touch!