Vickipedia

PETTY SESSIONS is the court constituted by two or more justices of the peace in England, when sitting in the administration of their ordinary jurisdiction. Though for many purposes statutes enable one justice to do acts auxiliary to the hearing and adjudication of a matter, yet the jurisdiction to adjudicate is generally conferred upon the justices in petty sessions, in which case there must be at least two justices present, and tins is called a petty sessions, as distinguished from quarter sessions, which generally may entertain an appeal from petty sessions. For the purpose of securing always sufficient justices, the whole of the counties of England are subdivided into what are called petty sessional divisions, those justices who live in the immediate neighborhood Hun; the members who form the court of such division. This subdivision of counties is confirmed by statute, and the justices at farter sessions have power from time to time to alter it. Each petty sessions is held in some town or village which gives it a name, and a police-court or place is appropriated for the purpose of the sittings of the court. There is a clerk of each petty sessions, usually a local attorney, who advises the justices, and issues the summons and receives the fees made payable for steps of the process. The justices in petty sessions have a multifarious jurisdiction, which they exercise chiefly by imposing penalties authorial by various acts of parliament, as penalties against poachers, vagrants, absconding workmen and apprentices, &c. They also have jurisdiction to hear charges for all indictable offences, to take depositions of witnesses, and, if they think a case of suspicion is made out, to commit the party for trial at the quarter sessions or assizes, and to bind over the witnesses to attend. See also JUSTICE OF THE PEACE.