Reports to Court; A Role in Preventing Decision Error

Abstract

Reports, especially from social workers, probation officers, guardians ad litem and doctors, play a regular and an important role in magistrates' courts. How they are written by expert witnesses, and how they are received by magistrates, may determine whether a defendant is gaoled, a child placed in care, a defendant is sent to hospital, or one of many other outcomes. Are there barriers to communication between such witnesses and courts? Might these reports be written in a way that helps clients and courts more? Should magistrates better appreciate the role of certain witnesses, better understand the constraints they must work under and the problems that giving evidence in court presents? This article is based upon a paper presented to a conference organised, in association with the Training Committee of the Hampshire Magistrates' Association, by the Continuing Education Programme of the Faculty of Law of Southampton University. However most of its arguments are not specific to that court and would equally apply to other courts and tribunals.