Actually a strange thing here - and I wonder how widespread it was - but for the top stream at my Scottish comprehensive school in the early 1980s, it was required to do Latin up to O-grade level (the exams after four years of secondary education, so the ones you took when you were 15/16). The reason was that entry to the older Scots universities to do law or medicine still had that as a requirement, so the school felt compelled to make that compulsory.
This is the most probable explanation for ‘beak’ that I have found:
Once upon a time, in the days when local government was still highly oligarchical, you had to be more or less invited to become a JP/magistrate, as a person of some standing in your local community - hence, usually local landowners and merchants. As local government became more democratised, so the appointment of JPs became more formalised and began to open up, and the range widened of local worthies who might suggest you to the powers that be, and hence the range of people who might do the job - but still people with strong local networks, often through the political parties and/or civic/charitable/community organisations. A friend of mine who is a school headmaster became one.
Nowadays the application process is open to anyone.
That’s for England and Wales; Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own arrangements.
My understanding is that Stipendiary Magistrates in England were legally qualified full-timers, sitting in higher profile and busier courts. Apparently they are now called “district judges”.
PS “Mulcted” - to my ears it also suggests milking, which is sort of appropriate to the mood of the Wodehouse quote above.
It does seem prejudicial but not any more so than having a prisoner’s dock to begin with.
In my state (every state?) defendants have the right to be tried in street clothes and be free from handcuffs or other visible restraints so the jury does not get the impression that he is guilty or dangerous.
I am quite aware that hoi is a definite article in Greek. And, perhaps by italicizing the phrase, I should have left out “the”. However, as you will note by perusing the web, there is no definite consensus regarding whether or not to use “the” with the words “hoi polloi”. Since I think most English speakers (being generally ignorant of Greek, sadly) would translate “hoi polloi” as “common people” (as opposed to “the common people”), I took the liberty of using the English definite article, which, of course, risks redundancy.
Mea culpa.
AFAIK, defendants in the UK also wear what they want (or have been advised by their lawyer to wear), and if they give evidence in their own defence, do so from the witness box. Just recently, in an episode of the caper drama series Lovejoy, our hero was up before a magistrate with a tough reputation on a charge of which he was technically guilty. His barrister swopped his sober suit jacket, shirt and Old Etonian tie, with our hero"s T-shirt and leather jacket, gave the magistrate as an excuse for his appearance that he (the barrister) had been called upon at short notice, let the magistrate notice the OE tie, and let his prejudices decide the defendant was a basically honest chap who had been badly served, and deserved no more than being bound over on his own bond.
And I can remember when they changed the conventional language so the defendant was no longer referred to as “the prisoner” and was to be addressed as “Mr/Miss/Mrs” rather than just by their surname - about 40 or 50 years ago, I think.
It’s a bit of an eye-opener when you see some local layabout up before the beak in a smart suit, clean shirt and tie, and with his hair neatly combed. This in contrast to his usual appearance of studded leather jacket over a dirty T-shirt, torn jeans and spiky hair.
Magistrates are well used to discounting appearance though and tend to go on the evidence before them.
Another distinction about the divided profession is that you don’t have a direct commercial relationship with the barrister. You hire the solicitor. If you need a barrister to represent you in Court, the solicitor retains the barrister.
This has been missed, I think. ‘Nicked’ means both stolen and arrested, depending in context.
“You’re nicked” Policeman to thief
“I must confess, I nicked the chocolate bar” Thief to Policeman.
No. The defendant goes into the witness box like anyone else.
Most English Courtrooms are pretty spartan. You speak from where you are sitting.
And “the nick” is slang for the jail. Oops, I mean ‘gaol’.
Congratulations on managing to post from 1976!