Interactions within an occupation; Magistrate

The occupation that I have chosen to look at is a magistrate. A magistrate is someone who works alongside a chairman in a magistrate’s court. A magistrate is involved with many interactions between other magistrates and the police and possibly other occupations that are needed or linked. When in a trial a magistrate isn’t allowed to speak to the person on trial or to the other magistrates until they are out of the court room and are making a decision on what the punishment may be, only the chairman is allowed to speak within the trial. It is then a team effort to talk and make a decision amongst one another. Magistrates also have to deal with interactions through telephone conversations as they are required, as part of their job, to accept that they can be called or visited by the police at any time in order to sign a warrant. Another interaction that a magistrate may be involved with would be emails, the court house would email out to all the magistrates if extra help is needed on specific days. During breaks/lunch times magistrates choose to mainly talk about their life outside of work, their social and family life. At this point they may use taboo or slang as they are not required to talk about the occupation or use specific jargon. When being involved with interactions with the police, security or when making a court based decision a magistrate is required to use occupational lexis, this is because the interactions that go on between such people are quite serious and have a big effect on many people. Additionally, magistrates may be friends or see other magistrates socially so may interact outside of the courthouse but this isn’t common as magistrates range from many ages. Finally, a magistrate would have instrumental power over the person being accused or on trial because they listen and contribute after when choosing what should be the outcome to their trial.