To help alleviate the crushing overload of the court docket, magistrates presided over all the small claims cases in the local state court.
magistrate
Definition
1. A local official whose authority is limited to whatever has been granted by statute or specified in the appointment.
2. In local or state courts, a justice of the peace or other judicial officer who has strictly limited authority and jurisdiction to hear certain cases, often criminal cases or small claims.
3. In U.S. federal courts, a judicial officer who has been appointed by a federal district judge to expedite the judicial process by conducting routine hearings and other proceedings.
Definition from Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary
1) In the U.S., a generic term for a court judge. 2) In a few U.S. states, a justice of the peace or other lower-level officer of the court, with limited power to hear certain types of cases, such as small claims lawsuits or minor crimes, or to conduct particular types of proceedings, such as preliminary hearings. 3) In U.S. federal district courts, a magistrate judge is an official who conducts routine hearings assigned by the federal judges, including preliminary hearings in criminal cases.
Definition provided by Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary.
August 19, 2010, 5:19 pm
“The Federal Magistrates Act, 28 U.S.C. § 631, permits district courts to assign designated functions to magistrate judges. For example, magistrate judges are authorized to: issue order concerning release or detention of persons pending trial; take acknowledgments, affidavits, and depositions; and enter sentences for petty offenses. § 636(a). They also may hear and determine, when designated to do so, any pretrial matter pending before the district court, with the exception of certain specified motions. Magistrate judges may also conduct hearings and propose recommendations for those motions, applications for post-trial criminal relief, and conditions of confinement petitions. § 636(b)(1). If the parties consent, they may conduct misdemeanor criminal trials and civil trials. §§ 636(a)(3) and (c)(1).” J. Kennedy, Gonzalez v. United States, 553 U.S. 242, 245 (2008).
