United Kingdom
In Scotland, District Courts were introduced in 1975 as replacement for Burgh Police Courts; they dealt with the most minor crimes. They were run by the local authorities. Each court comprised one or more Justices of the Peace (lay magistrates) who sat alone or in threes with a qualified legal assessor as convener or clerk of court.
They handled many cases of breach of the peace, drunkenness, minor assaults, petty theft, and offences under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982.
District Court operated under summary procedure and could not impose a fine in excess of £2,500 or sentence an offender to more than 60 days in prison. In practice, most offences were dealt with by a fine.
In Glasgow where the volume of business requires the employment of three solicitors as "stipendiary magistrates" who sit in place of the lay Justices. The Stipendiary Magistrates' court has the same sentencing power as the summary Sheriff Court.
District Courts in Scotland were abolished and replaced with Justice of the Peace Courts under the provisions of the Criminal Proceedings etc. (Reform) (Scotland) Act 2007. The Justice of the Peace Courts are managed by the Scottish Court Service. Responsibility for the Courts was transferred from the local authorities in a rolling programme of court unification which concluded in February 2010. District Courts were replaced by JP Courts in sheriffdoms as follows-
- Sheriffdom of Lothian and Borders, 10 March 2008
- Sheriffdom of Grampian, Highlands and Islands, 2 June 2008
- Sheriffdom of Glasgow and Strathkelvin, 8 December 2008
- Sheriffdom of Tayside, Central and Fife, 23 February 2009
- Sheriffdom of North Strathclyde, 14 December 2009
- Sheriffdom of South Strathclyde, Dumfries & Galloway, 22 February 2010
Read more about this topic: District Court
Famous quotes containing the words united and/or kingdom:
“Hearing, seeing and understanding each other, humanity from one end of the earth to the other now lives simultaneously, omnipresent like a god thanks to its own creative ability. And, thanks to its victory over space and time, it would now be splendidly united for all time, if it were not confused again and again by that fatal delusion which causes humankind to keep on destroying this grandiose unity and to destroy itself with the same resources which gave it power over the elements.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“In the whole vast dome of living nature there reigns an open violence, a kind of prescriptive fury which arms all the creatures to their common doom: as soon as you leave the inanimate kingdom you find the decree of violent death inscribed on the very frontiers of life.”
—Joseph De Maistre (1753–1821)