Petty Sessions - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition petty-sessions

Definition :

Petty Sessions. A meeting of two or more justices of the peace, not being a general or quarter sessions, to transact business with which it is either necessary or desirable that more than one justice should deal. The expression is, however, often used to denote a Petty Sessional Court, which is defined as 'a Court of summary jurisdiction, consisting of two or more justices, sitting in a

petty sessional Court-house,' and includes 'any stipendiary magistrate when sitting in a Court-house or place or which he is authorized to do alone any act authorized to be done by more than one justice of the peace.'--(English) Interpretation Act, 1889, s. 13 (12). The principal business transacted by a petty sessional Court is the trial of minor offences in a summary way without a jury. This power is given by various statutes dealing with particular offences and by the Summary Jurisdiction Acts. There is an appeal from the decision of a petty sessional Court on questions of law and fact to quarter sessions in the manner provided by the S.J. Acts by any person aggrieved by any conviction in respect of any offence who did not plead, or who has pleaded, guilty, or did or did not admit the truth of the information [(English) Criminal Justice Administration Act, 1914, s. 37, and (English) Criminal Justice Act, 1925, s. 25]. An alternative method of appeal on a point of law only is by case stated to the High Court. Appeals to petty sessions are provided for by a number of Acts, e.g., Public Health, Housing, Road Traffic, etc. As to the duties of justices, see JUSTICES, and Stone's Justices' Manual.