Commentary on Sections: Part 2 Chairman and deputy chairmen and the bench Section 17: Chairman and deputy chairmen: selectionSection 18: Rights to preside and size of bench
63.These sections make similar provision to sections 22 and 24 of the JPA 1997.
64.Section 17 provides for the lay magistrates of a local justice area to elect from their number a Chairman and one or more Deputy Chairmen, and confers a rule-making power as to how this will operate.
65.Section 18 sets out the circumstances in which a Chairman or Deputy Chairman may have a right to preside in court, or to chair a meeting of justices, and when he may not. The section also provides the Lord Chancellor with a rule-making power as to the size of a bench of lay justices.