Paul Firth

Paul Firth spent over 30 years working in the Magistrates' Courts. After leaving university he joined the Keighley Court in 1973 as a trainee court clerk. He moved to Leeds in 1975, where he qualified as a solicitor before becoming Deputy Justices' Clerk at Manchester in 1981. In 1986 he became Justices' Clerk at Rotherham.

While in that post he became a Deputy Stipendiary Magistrate, sitting mainly in Hull and Bradford. In 1995 he was appointed as Stipendiary Magistrate for Merseyside, spending most of his time in Liverpool. The post title was altered to District Judge (Magistrates' Courts) in 2000. He moved to the Lancashire courts in 2001 and retired in 2005.

He has been a part-time teacher at the University of Salford since 2006, and was named as an Honorary Fellow in Criminal Justice in 2011. He also writes for various journals and newspapers on criminal justice topics.