Assessors - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition assessors

Definition :

Assessors, literally those who sit by the side of another: persons appointed to ascertain and fix the value of taxes, rates, etc. Also persons sometimes associated with judges of courts to advise and direct the decisions of such judges.

By the (English) Judicature Act, 1925, s. 98, replacing the (English) Judicature Act, 1873, s. 56, the High Court or the Court of Appeal may, when it may think it expedient other than in a criminal proceeding by the Crown, call in the aid of one or more assessors specially qualified, and try and hear the matter in question wholly or partially with the assistance of such assessors. By the County Courts Act, 1934, s. 88, replacing the County Court Admiralty Jurisdiction Act, 1868, s. 14, provision is made for the appointment of assessors of 'natural skill and experience' in Admiralty actions, and such assessors frequently sit in county courts under the powers of this Act.

Schedule II. of the (English) Workmen's Compensa-tion Act, 1925, gives a county court judge power to summon a medical referee to sit with him as an assessor upon the hearing of an arbitration under that Act. By virtue of s. 31 of the (English) Patents and Designs Act,1907, the Court, in an action for infringement or revocation of a patent, 'may, if it think fit, and shall on the request of either of the parties' call in the aid of an assessor specially qualified. The remuneration of assessors in the above instances has not to be borne by either litigant.