Administrative Proceedings…

Welcome to Week 7 of the court visit breakdown!

 Here is your backstory:

• This visit consisted mainly of administrative hearings

• Due to this I was able to observe snippets of multiple cases, mostly the beginning of what may become a trial.

My observations began in Courtroom 2. Immediately I noticed the judge entered wearing a black and purple robe with a red sash over the shoulder. This is something I had not seen before, and subsequently went on a deep dive into the uniform judge’s wear (exciting I know)

  Here is what I found out (see below for pictures):

• High Court Judges – They are the senior judges and often called ‘Red Judges’. They wear a red (scarlet) robe with accents of black and red sash, alongside the wig

• Circuit Judges – They sit in the Crown court and County Court, typically for serious cases. They wear a black and violet robe with a red sash over the left shoulder. This is the type of judge that I had observed

• DistrictJudges - These judges tend to handle smaller cases. They wear the civil robe (black or blue)

• Magistrates – These are members of the community, so they simply wear suitable business attire.

• Recorder Judge – You may see this on the court listings, this is simply a part-time circuit judge. This is who I typically observe when attending court. They handle a lot of Crown court cases and must sit for 30-days a year. They will wear a black gown over a black suit.

Anyway, back to the case. This case had 6 different defendants who had been involved in stealing and possession of drugs. It began with an arraignment, where the Clerk confirmed the names of 2 defendants, read out their charges and asked if they were pleading guilty or not guilty. Here the two defendants pleaded guilty.

Following this, one of the defendants had pleaded guilty previously, so the judge was able to sentence him immediately. This defendant had been the owner of the ‘cannabis house’ that had been made. He was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment, with likely 40% of that sentence being served. On release he will then be deported back to Albania

Before leaving, I momentarily observed some of the case in Courtroom 1. This was simply an administrative hearing to decide the amount of wasted costs for a delayed trial, as well as deciding when the trial date will be. It was interesting to see how far in advance barrister’s work, around 6 months to a year. This trial being placed around August/September 2026.

I hope you enjoyed the court visit this week! See you next Friday!

High Court Judge