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POLICE COURTS

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 981 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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POLICE COURTS , courts of See also:summary See also:jurisdiction, held in See also:London and certain large towns of the See also:United See also:Kingdom by specially appointed and salaried magistrates. They were originally called " public offices" (See also:Middlesex Justices See also:Act 1792), but after the See also:establishment of the police force, in 1829, they came to be called " police offices," although no See also:change had taken See also:place in their nature. They are so described in a See also:report of a select See also:committee which inquired into the See also:system in 1837 and 1838; in the same report the magistrates who presided in the courts were first described as " police magistrates." Police offices were first officially described by their See also:modern See also:title in the See also:Metropolitan Police Courts Act 1839. In 1839 there were nine police courts; since 1792 there had been three magistrates to each See also:court, and the act of 1839 retained twenty-seven as the maximum number at any See also:time (s. 2). In 1835 unsalaried justices ceased to sit in the police courts along with the paid magistrates. The Metropolitan Police Courts Act 184o gave See also:power to See also:map out the whole of the metropolitan police See also:district into police court divisions, and to establish police courts wherever necessary, the artificial limit of twenty-seven magistrates being at the same time preserved. Additional courts have from time to time been established by orders in See also:council, and in 1910 there were in London fourteen courts with twenty-five magistrates. Their divisions are regulated by orders in council of 1903 and 1905; the nine See also:original courts are See also:Bow See also:Street, See also:Westminster, Marylebone, See also:Marlborough Street, See also:Worship Street, See also:Clerkenwell, See also:Thames, See also:Tower See also:Bridge and See also:Lambeth. The courts are held every See also:day from to a.m. to 5 p.m. except on See also:Sunday, See also:Christmas Day, See also:Good See also:Friday or any day appointed for a public fast or thanksgiving or See also:bank See also:holiday. The See also:Greenwich and See also:Woolwich court, which comprises one See also:division, is held at Greenwich in the See also:morning and at Woolwich in the afternoon. The See also:chief See also:magistrate (sitting at Bow Street) receives a See also:salary of 1800 a See also:year and the other magistrates £1500 each.

The magistrates are appointed by the See also:

Crown; they must have been practising barristers for seven years or stipendiary magistrates for some place in See also:England or See also:Wales. One police magistrate has the same See also:powers as two justices, but may not act in anything which has to be done at See also:special or See also:petty sessions of all the justices acting in the division or at See also:quarter sessions. He can do alone when sitting in a police court any act which any See also:justice or justices can do under the Indict-able Offences Act 1848, or under the Summary Jurisdiction Act; he has special powers under the Metropolitan Police Courts Act 1839, and is also given special powers under certain other acts. The Bow Street court has jurisdiction in See also:extradition. The precedent of appointing salaried magistrates was followed for certain towns in the provinces by particular acts, and in 1863 the Stipendiary Magistrates Act gave power to towns and boroughs of 25,000 inhabitants and upwards to obtain a stipendiary magistrate.

End of Article: POLICE COURTS

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