District court
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District courts are a category of courts which exists in several nations. These include:
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Australia
District Court is the name given to the intermediate court in some Australian States. They hear indictable (serious) criminal offences excluding treason, murder and, in some States, manslaughter. Their civil jurisdiction is also intermediate, typically being for civil disputes where the amount claimed is greater than a few tens of thousands of dollars but less than a few hundreds of thousands of dollars. The limits vary between Australian States. In Victoria, the equivalent Court is called the County Court. Below them is the Local Court, known as Magistrates' Courts in some jurisdictions. Above them are the State Supreme Courts.
Austria
Austria has some 200 district, or local, courts, which decide minor civil and criminal cases.
Finland
- See also Judical system of Finland
Finland has 61 district courts, which deal with criminal cases, civil cases and petitionary matters. Each court is headed by the Chief Judge and other District Judges. In certain cases, the district court may also have Lay Judges. The cases are handled and resolved either in a session or in chambers. In simple cases decisions can be made by notaries.
Hong Kong
The District Courts in Hong Kong, established in 1953, has limited jurisdiction in both civil and criminal matters. With effect from December 1, 2003, it has civil jurisdiction to hear monetary claims up to HK$1 million or, where the claims are for recovery of land, the annual rent or rateable value does not exceed HK$240,000. In its criminal jurisdiction, the court may try the more serious cases, with the main exceptions of murder, manslaughter and rape. The maximum term of imprisonment it may impose is seven years. There are one Chief District Judge and 30 District Judges, among which three District Judges sit in the Family Court and two District Judges sit in the Lands Tribunal as Presiding Officers.
Scotland
District Courts were introduced in 1975 as replacement for Burgh Police Courts; they deal with the most minor crimes. They are run by the local authorities. Each court comprises one or more Justices of the Peace (lay magistrates) who sit alone or in threes with a qualified legal assessor as convener or clerk of court.
They handle many cases of breach of the peace, drunkenness, minor assaults, petty theft, and offences under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982.
District Court operate under summary procedure and may not impose a fine in excess of £2,500 or sentence an offender to more than 60 days in prison. In practice, most offences are 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.
The Scottish Executive has recently announced its intention to unify the management of the Sheriff and District courts in Scotland, but retaining lay Justices.
United States of America
District courts can refer to either a particular level of trial courts in a state or the trial courts of the federal court system. The two can be distinguished by the fact that the federal courts are called "United States District Courts."
The organization and jurisdiction of state district courts depend on the laws of the state in which they sit. Many states do not use judicial districts to organize their courts or, at least, do not call their trial courts "district courts."
The federal district courts have jurisdiction over federal questions (trials and cases interpreting federal law, or which involve federal statutes or crimes) and diversity (cases otherwise subject to jurisdiction in a state trial court but which are between litigants of different states and/or countries). There are 89 federal districts in the 50 states. United States district courts also exist in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the District of Columbia, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. So, in total, there are 94 U.S. district courts. They are subject to review by the appellate courts (United States Court of Appeals), which are, in turn, subject to review by the United States Supreme Court.
See United States district court for details.
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