Sessions

A sitting of justices in court upon their commission, or by virtue of their appointment, and most commonly for the trial of criminal cases. The title of several courts in England and the United States, chiefly those of criminal jurisdiction. the execution of the powers which are confided to them as such. (1) Petty sessions (or petit sessions) are sittings held by one or more justices for the trial of minor offenses, admitting to bail prisoners accused of felony, and the like purposes. When sitting for purposes of preliminary inquiry, the public cannot claim admittance; but it is otherwise when sitting for purposes of adjudication. (2) Special sessions are sittings of two or more justices on a particular occasion for the exercise of some given branch of their authority, upon reasonable notice given to the other magistrates of the hundred or other division of the county, city, etc., for which they are convened. See St. 7 & 8 Vict. c. 33. The counties are distributed into divisions, and authority given by various statutes to the justices acting for the several divisions to transact different descriptions of business, such as licensing alehouses, or appointing overseers of the poor, surveyors of the highways, etc., at special sessions. 3 Steph. Comm. 43, 44. (3) General sessions of the peace are courts of record, holden before the justices, whereof one is of the quorum, for execution of the general authority given to the justices by the commission of the peace and certain acts of parliament. The only description of general sessions now usually held is the court of general quarter sessions of the peace; but in the county of Middlesex, besides the four quarter sessions, four general sessions are held in the intervals, and original intermediate sessions occasionally take place. They may be called by any two justices in the jurisdiction, one being of the quorum, or by the custos rotulorum and one justice, but not by one justice or the custos rotulorum alone. (4) General quarter sessions of the peace. See "Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace."

A sitting of justices in court upon their commission, or by virtue of their appointment, and most commonly for the trial of criminni cases. The title of several courts in England and the United States, chiefly those of criminal jurisdiction. Burrill.

Defined under Session in Black's Law Dictionary.

A sitting of justices in court, most commonly for the trial of criminal cases. The title of several courts, Enghsh and American.

In English law. Sessions of the peace: a sitting of the justices of the peace for the execution of duties confided to them by their commission, and by charter or statute. They are a petty or petit session, which is a sitting of one or more justices for the summary trial of minor offenses and for other purposes; a special session, which is a for the transaction of some special general sessions of the peace, which is a court of record held before two or more justices, whereof one is of the quorum, in execution of the general authority given by the commission of the peace and certain acts of parliament; the general quarter sessions of the peace, which is a court of record held in every county once in every quarter of a year, before two or more justices of the peace, one of whom must be of the quorum, for the trial of misdemeanors and lesser felonies.

or County Sessions: a minor criminal court, or general sessions of the peace, held in each county four times a year before two justices of the peace, one of whom must be of the quorum, or the recorder in boroughs. 41. The new County courts were established by the 9 & 10 Vict. c. 95; they are over five hundred in number, and have a common-law jurisdiction up to £50; also of all consent actions, ejectments, attachments, interrogatories; and an equity jurisdiction up to £500; as weU as some jurisdiction in probate, admiralty, and bankruptcy. Appeals lie from them to the divisions of the High Court of Justice. D. The more important English courts of special or local nature or jurisdiction are as follows: — 42. The courts of Ancient Demesne were anciently held by a bailiff appointed by the King; in them alone the tenants of the King's demesne could be impleaded; v. Ancient demesne. 43. The Court of Augmentations was established by the 27 Hen. VIII. c. 27, for protecting the King's interests as to suppressed monasteries, and dissolved in the reign of Mary. 44. The Star Chamber,