Introduction -- Images of judges -- Where do English and Welsh judges come from? -- The first step on the ladder : becoming a part-time judge -- Becoming Her Majesty's judge -- Training -- Judges' working personality -- Criminal business : district judges in the magistrates' court -- Criminal business : circuit judges in the crown court -- Judges and juries -- Civil business in the county court -- Family judges : the patience of Job and the judgment of Solomon -- High court business -- The Court of Appeal -- Brenda and the law lords transform into the Supremes -- Judges on judges -- Tools of the trade -- The world of judges from 2011
Summary
The public image of judges has been stuck in a time warp; they are invariably depicted in the media - and derided in public bars up and down the country - as 'privately educated Oxbridge types', usually 'out-of-touch', and more often than not as 'old men'. These and other stereotypes - the judge as a pervert, the judge as a right-wing monster - have dogged the judiciary long since any of them ceased to have any basis in fact. Indeed the limited research that was permitted in the 1960s and 1970s tended to reinforce several of these stereotypes. Moreover, occasional high profile incidents in the
