Defense and Mitigation in the Juvenile Court - The Role of the Solicitor in Juvenile Justice (From Essays in Law and Society, P 38-52, 1980, Zenon Bankowski and Geoff Mungham, ed. - See NCJ-73690)

• NCJ Number: 73693
• Author(s): H Williamson
• Date Published: 1980
• Length: 15 pages
• Sale Source: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Based on eight months of observation of juvenile court proceedings in a large English city, this article examines solicitors' roles and concludes that their presence facilitates court processing but does not substantively benefit juvenile clients.

Abstract

Since juvenile court began as a welfare-oriented forum, legal representation of defendants was not thought to be necessary. However in recent years the value of providing legal representation for juvenile defendants has been increasingly recognized. In addition to proving a client's innocence or securing a favorable disposition, the solicitor in the juvenile court becomes an expert witness through his assessments of home background, parental concern, and defendant's attitudes. Observations throughout the study period revealed that one-third of the juvenile offenders remained unrepresented and those who sought legal counsel had a very limited choice of solicitors. Once a juvenile is represented, the proceedings become more formalized and the defendant is relegated to a dummy role and cannot participate. An awkward, unpresentable client poses particular problems for the solicitor, who can protect his credibility only by basing a plea for mitigation on the inability of the client to comprehend the seriousness of the situation. On the other hand, the court must deal with the awkward or obstructive defendant if no solicitor is present. Special Inquiry Reports are written prior to court proceedings for juvenile offenders and are a major influence on the dispositional decision. Because of the growing emphasis on social and psychological causes of crime, the solicitor in the juvenile court has a wide range of mitigating arguments. The general relationship between defense solicitors and the judges may be described as one of polite disagreement, but solicitors manipulate the bench by avoiding magistrates who are not receptive to mitigating arguments and making special appeals to the liberal treatment-based ideology of many juvenile magistrates. If the juvenile court sincerely wishes to help defendants, it should permit solicitors to take an active role. Legal representation seems unnecessary in many cases, particularly when the recommendations of the Special Inquiry Report are likely to be implemented and disposition will probably be lenient. A bibliography of six references is included.