The Professional Project of Parajudges: The Case of U.S. Magistrates

Abstract

The Magistrate Act of 1968 (Pub. L. 90-578, tit. I, § 101, 82 Stat. 1113) introduced a new tier of judicial officers into the federal district courts. As a result of this act and two amendments (Pub. L. 94-577, § 1, 90 Stat. 2729 (1976); Pub. L. 96-82, § 2, 93 Stat. 643 (1979)), magistrates may now work on a wide variety of civil and criminal pretrial tasks at the discretion of Article III judges; indeed, with the consent of both parties, magistrates may hold jury trials in civil cases. In addition, the act and the amendments encourage courts to delegate “additional duties” to magistrates with a view toward developing innovative work relations between two tiers of judicial officers.Since both groups are lawyers, magistrates and Article III judges share the same formal training and professional expertise. Organizationally, however, magistrates work for federal judges. There is the potential, therefore, for a wide variety of work relations between these two tiers of judicial officers. The history of magistrates' “professional project” (Larson, 1977) to expand their formal duties, their autonomy and control over decision making, and their organizational status provides a useful entry point for analyzing recent developments in judicial work relations, the subject of this article.I will first report the results of a study of U.S. magistrates. These findings suggest a typology of three distinct patterns of response to these new judicial officers: additional judge, bureaucrat, and team player. I next consider why courts opt for the occupational models they do. Finally, I speculate about the implications of the variations for understanding contemporary developments in judging and judicial process.