THE Department for Constitutional Affairs says magistrates reflect the diversity of the community they serve, but the simple fact is they don't.

The majority of magistrates I have encountered have been the virtuous white middle-class.

It is inevitable that these predominantly middle-aged lay people, whose positions require no legal training, come with their own prejudices.

But their position in society means they have little or no understanding of the mostly young, working-class people they judge.

Civil liberties campaigners have been arguing for years that defendants are not given fair hearings because of the social prejudices of magistrates.

From my experience these people often seem full of a sense of their own inflated power, sitting up there on their moral high ground.

It is quite disturbing to see a trembling man reduced to tears after being threatened with custody for an offence which I would consider relatively minor because his apology was not grovelling enough.

He was clearly sorry in his own way and appeared daunted by the situation he found himself in, but his shame was obviously not sufficient for this smug man.

I am not condoning criminality, but these people all have the same sad stories to tell - who knows, maybe even magistrates would resort to such behaviour if they had to cope with just a fraction of what these people have had to endure.

Justices of the Peace are not paid for what they do, which would suggest they have enough time and money to dedicate themselves to Her Majesty's Service.

The Government needs to broaden the pool of experience from which magistrates are drawn if we are to see a just legal system, and I am not the only one who lacks confidence.

According to the Institute for Public Policy Research, more than half of the population think magistrates are out of touch.