Petty Sessions - Law Dictionary Search Results
Home Dictionary Name: petty sessionsPetty Sessions
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 apetty 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 sess...
Clerk of Justices of the Peace, clerk of petty Sessions, Clerk of Special Sessions
Clerk of Justices of the Peace, clerk of petty Sessions, Clerk of Special Sessions. The duties of these officers are, by the Justices Clerks Act, 1877 (40 & 41 Vict. c. 43), s. 5, performed by the salaried clerk called in the Act; clerk of a petty sessional division.' Such clerk of a petty sessional division.' Such clerk must, by s. 7, be either a barrister of not less than 14 years' standing, or a solicitor, or have served for not less than seven years as a clerk to a magistrate or to a metropolitan police Court....
Sessions of the peace
Sessions of the peace, sittings of justices of the peace for the execution of those powers which are confided to them by their commission, or by charter, and by numerous statutes. They are of three descriptions:-I. Petty Sessions.--Metropolitan Police magistrates can act alone (see that title), with that exception, every meeting of two or more justices in the same place, for the execution of some power vested in them by law, whether had on their own mere motion, or on the requisition of any party entitled to require their attendance in discharge of some duty, is a petty or petit session. The occasions for holding petty sessions are very numerous, amongst the most important of which is the bailing persons accused of felony, which may be done after a full hearing of evidence on both sides, where the presumption of guilt shall either be weak in itself, or weakened by the proofs adduced on behalf of the prisoner. See PETTY SESSIONS.As to right of the public to attend petty sessions, see OP...
Quarter Sessions
Quarter Sessions, the sittings of the whole body of the justices of the peace in a county, and of a recorder in a borough, having a separate Court of quarter sessions, four times in each year, or oftener, to try certain indictable offences, and hear appeals from petty sessions. The holding of quarter sessions can be dispensed with or the time for holding them varied within certain limits by virtue of the Assizes and Quarter Sessions Act, 1908, as amended by the Crim. Justice Act, 1925; see ss. 18-23 and 1st Sched. Where by statute the decision of the Quarter Sessions is final, there is no power to state a case for the opinion of the High Court, Kydd v. Liverpool Watch Committee, 1908 AC 327. See SESSIONS OF THE PLACE....
Justices
Justices, officers deputed by the Crown to ad-minister justice and do right by way of judgment. The judges of the Supreme Court are called justices, but the word is usually applied to petty magistrates who sit to administer summary justice in minor matters, and who are commonly called justices of the peace. They were first appointed in 1327 by 1 Edw. 3, st. 2, c. 16, and are now appointed by the king's special commission under the Great Seal, the form of which was settled by all the judges in 1590, and continues, with little alteration, to this day. Consult Putnam's Early Treatises on the Practice of the Justices of the Peace in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. This appoints them all, jointly and severally, to keep the peace in the county named; and any two or more of them to inquire of and determine felonies and other misdemeanours in such county committed, in which number some particular justices, or one of them, are directed to be always included, and no business done without ...
County
County [fr. Comte, Fr.; comitatus, Lat.], a shire or portion of country comprehending a great number of hundreds. England is divided into forty counties or shires, Wales into twelve and Scotland into thirty.It seems probable that the realm was originally divided into counties with a view to the convenient administration of justice, the judicial business of the kingdom having, in former times, been chiefly despatched in local Courts held in each different county, before the sheriff as its principal officer. His duties are now more ministerial than judicial.All the English counties except Rutland are subdivided for purposes of parliamentary representation.As to the divisons of counties for holding petty and special sessions, see the (English) Division of Counties Act, 1828 (9 Geo. 4, c. 43), the (English) Petty Sessional Divisions Act, 1836 (6 & 7 Wm. 4, c. 12), and the (English) Petty Sessional Divisions Act, 1859, Chitty's Statutes, tit. 'Justices (Sessions).'By (English) Local Governm...
Appeal
Appeal [fr. appellatio, Lat.; appeller, Fr.]. the judicial examination of the decision by a higher Court of the decision of an inferior Court. Thus there is an appeal from the High Court to the Court of Appeal (see (English) Judicature Act, 1925, s. 27), from the Court of Appeal to the House of Lords (see s. 3 of the (English) Appellate Jurisdiction Act, 1876, c. 59), from the Petty Sessions to Quarter Sessions, where the appeal is by way of retrial (see s. 19 of the (English) Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, also Summary Jurisdiction (Appeals) Act, 1933, and SESSIONS OF THE PEACE), from the County Courts to the Court of Appeal (see s. 105 of the County Courts Act, 1934, and next title), and in criminal matters, to the Court of Criminal Appeal under the (English) Criminal Appeal Act, 1907, or under the (English) Crown Cases Act, 1848 (11 & 12 Vict. c. 78). Appeals to the House of Lords in forma pauperis are checked by the (English) Appeal (Forma Pauperis) Act, 1893 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 22)...
Right to begin
Right to begin. If the affirmative of the issue is on the plaintiff, he, in general, has a right to begin. If in replevin the defendant avow for rent in arrear, and the plaintiff reply reins in arrear, the plaintiff must begin. In any action where the plaintiff seeks to recover damages of an unascertained amount, he is entitled to begin, though the affirmative be with the defendant.In considering, however, which party ought to begin, it is not so much the form of the issue which is to be considered as the substance and effect of it, and the judge will consider what is the substantial fact to be made out, and on whom it lies to make it out. And it seems that, as a general rule, the party entitled to begin is he who would have a verdict against him if no evidence were given on either side.In the Court of Appeal, and in all other civil appeals, the appellant's counsel begins.On an appeal to quarter sessions from the petty sessions, the person who appears in support of the order of the mag...
Solicitor
Solicitor, an officer of the Supreme Court of Judicature, who, and who only, is entitled to 'sue out any writ or process, or commence, carry on, solicit, or defend any action, suit or other proceeding' in any Court whatever (see (English) Solicitors Act, 1932, s. 45). 'Solicitor of the Supreme Court' was the title given by the (English) Judicature Act, 1843, s. 87, to all attorneys, solicitors, and proctors, and continued by (English) Solicitors Act 1932, s. 81. Prior to that Act, 'attorneys' conducted business in the Common Law Courts, 'solicitors' business in the Court of Chancery and 'proctors' ecclesiastical and Admiralty business; but it was the general practice, although any person might be admitted to practise as an attorney or solicitor only, to be admitted to practise as an attorney and solicitor also.Solicitors practise as advocates before magistrates at petty sessions and quarter sessions where there is no bar, in County Courts, at Arbitrations, at Judges' Chambers, Coroners...
Clubs
Clubs, associations to which individuals subscribe for purposes of mutual entertainment and convenience; the affairs of which are generally conducted by a steward or secretary, who acts under the immediate superintendence of a committee. The members of an ordinary club, merely as such, are not liable for anything beyond their subscriptions, Wise v. Perpetual Trustee Co., 1903 AC 139. As to altering the rules of a club, see Thellusson v. Valentia, 1907 (2) Ch 1; and as to the expulsion of a member, see Baird v. Wells, (1890) 44 Ch D 661. Consult Wertheimer on Clubs; Leake on Contracts.As to working men's club, sick clubs, etc., see FRIENDLY SOCIETIES, and especially s. 8 of the (English) Friendly Societies Act, 1896 (59 & 60 Vict. c. 25), and (English) Industrial Assurance and Friendly Societies Act, 1929 (19 & 20 Geo. 5, c. 28). Shop clubs are dealt with by the (English) Shop Clubs Act, 1902 (2 Edw. 7, c. 21), which prohibits compulsory membership of unregistered Shop Clubs or Thrift F...
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