Stipendiary magistrate
magistrate in various Commonwealth countries
Stipendiary magistrates were magistrates that were paid for their work (they received a stipend). They existed in the judiciaries of the United Kingdom and those of several former British territories, presiding over the lowest-level criminal courts.
United Kingdom
England and Wales
Stipendiary magistrates sat in the magistrates' courts of England and Wales, alongside unpaid 'lay' magistrates, generally hearing the more serious cases. In London, stipendiary magistrates were known as metropolitan stipendiary magistrates. Until 1949, they were known as metropolitan police magistrates. There was also a Chief Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate for London, with additional administrative duties.
In August 2000, stipendiary magistrates, including metropolitan stipendiary magistrates, were replaced by the new role of district judge (magistrates' courts). In the modern criminal court, district judges and magistrates possess equal powers. There is also now a Senior District Judge (Chief Magistrate).
Stipendiary magistrates were appointed for:
Manchester and Salford by the Manchester Stipendiary Magistrate (53 Geo.
“Stipendiary magistrate” enters the record as magistrate in various Commonwealth countries. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Stipendiary, magistrate and various can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Stipendiary magistrate” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.