Local justice areas
Local justice areas are units in England and Wales established by the Courts Act 2003, replacing and directly based on the previous petty sessions areas. They have been in existence since 2005.
Local justice areas are used to determine which magistrates' courts may hear a particular case. Specifically, cases may only be heard in courts which are in:
- a place in the local justice area in which the offence is alleged to have been committed,
- a place in the local justice area in which the person charged with the offence resides,
- a place in the local justice area in which the witnesses, or the majority of the witnesses, reside, or
- a place where other cases raising similar issues are being dealt with.
The areas established were identical to the petty sessions areas. They have since been amended by the merger of South Pembrokeshire and North Pembrokeshire to a single Pembrokeshire local justice area, and the merger of De Maldwyn and Welshpool to a single Montgomeryshire local justice area - this change will came into force in 2006, although the magistrates already shared the same courtroom.
A further amendment occurred in 2006 when the areas of Shrewsbury, Oswestry and Drayton were combined to become a new area named Shrewsbury and North Shropshire. The areas of Telford and Bridgnorth and South Shropshire were also combined to become a new area named Telford and South Shropshire.
Each local justice area is part of a larger courts board area, which replaced the magistrates' courts committee areas with the inauguration of Her Majesty's Courts Service in 2005.[1]
England
Avon and Somerset
- Bath and Wansdyke
- Bristol
- Mendip
- North Avon (South Gloucestershire)
- North Somerset
- Sedgemoor
- South Somerset
- Taunton Deane and West Somerset
Bedfordshire
Cambridgeshire
Cheshire
- Chester, Ellesmere Port and Neston
- Halton
- Macclesfield
- South Cheshire (Congleton and Crewe and Nantwich)
- Warrington
- Vale Royal
Cleveland
- Hartlepool
- Langbaurgh East (eastern part of Redcar and Cleveland)
- Teesside
Durham
- North Durham
- South Durham
Cumbria
- Carlisle and District
- Eden
- Furness and District (Barrow-in-Furness)
- South Lakeland
- West Allerdale and Keswick (Allerdale)
- Whitehaven (Copeland)
Derbyshire
- High Peak
- North East Derbyshire and Dales
- Southern Derbyshire
Devon and Cornwall
- East Cornwall
- Central Devon
- North Devon
- Plymouth District
- West Cornwall
- South Devon
Dorset
- East Dorset
- West Dorset
Essex
- Mid-North Essex
- Mid-South Essex
- North East Essex
- North West Essex
- South East Essex
- South West Essex
Gloucestershire
- Gloucestershire
Greater London
- Barking and Dagenham
- Barnet
- Bexley
- Brent
- Bromley
- Camden and Islington
- City of London
- City of Westminster
- Croydon
- Ealing
- Enfield
- Greenwich and Lewisham
- Hackney and Tower Hamlets
- Hammersmith and Fulham and Kensington and Chelsea
- Haringey
- Harrow Gore ()
- Havering
- Hillingdon
- Hounslow
- Kingston-upon-Thames
- Lambeth and Southwark
- Merton
- Newham
- Redbridge
- Richmond-upon-Thames
- Sutton
- Waltham Forest
- Wandsworth
Greater Manchester
Hampshire (and the Isle of Wight)
- Isle of Wight
- New Forest
- North East Hampshire
- North West Hampshire
- South East Hampshire
- South Hampshire
- Southampton
Hertfordshire
- West & Central Hertfordshire
- North & East Hertfordshire
Humberside
- Beverley and the Wolds
- Bridlington
- Goole and Howdenshire
- Grimsby and Cleethorpes (North East Lincolnshire)
- Hull and Holderness
- North Lincolnshire
Kent
- Central Kent
- East Kent
- North Kent
Lancashire
- Blackburn, Darwen and Ribble Valley
- Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale
- Chorley
- Fylde Coast (Blackpool, Fylde, Wyre)
- Hyndburn
- Lancaster
- Ormskirk (West Lancashire)
- Preston
- South Ribble
Leicestershire (and Rutland)
- Ashby-de-la-Zouch (North West Leicestershire)
- Leicester
- Loughborough (Charnwood)
- Market Bosworth
- Market Harborough and Lutterworth (Harborough)
- Melton, Belvoir and Rutland (Melton and Rutland)
Lincolnshire
Merseyside
Norfolk
- Central Norfolk
- Great Yarmouth
- North Norfolk
- Norwich
- South Norfolk
- West Norfolk
Northamptonshire
Northumbria (Northumberland and Tyne and Wear)
- Alnwick
- Berwick-upon-Tweed
- Gateshead District
- Houghton-le-Spring
- Newcastle upon Tyne District
- North Tyneside District
- South East Northumberland (Blyth Valley and Wansbeck)
- South Tyneside District
- City of Sunderland
- Tynedale
North Yorkshire
Nottinghamshire
- Mansfield
- Newark-on-Trent and Southwell (Newark and Sherwood)
- Nottingham
- Worksop and Retford (Bassetlaw)
South Yorkshire
Staffordshire
- Central and South West Staffordshire (Stafford, Cannock Chase, South Staffordshire
- North Staffordshire (Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire Moorlands)
- South East Staffordshire (East Staffordshire, Lichfield, Tamworth)
Suffolk
- North East Suffolk
- South East Suffolk
- West Suffolk
Surrey
- North Surrey - Staines Magistrates Court
- North West Surrey - Woking Magistrates Court (now closed)
- South East Surrey - Redhill Magistrates Court
- South West Surrey - Guildford Magistrates Court
Proposal now to merge all Surrey Courts
Sussex
- Sussex (Central) - Brighton and Lewes Magistrates Courts
- Sussex (Eastern) - Eastbourne and Hastings Magistrates Courts
- Sussex (Northern) - Crawley, Haywards Heath and Horsham Magistrates Courts
- Sussex (Western)- Worthing and Chichester Magistrates Courts
Thames Valley (Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire)
- Central Buckinghamshire
- East Berkshire
- Milton Keynes
- Northern Oxfordshire
- Oxford
- Reading
- Southern Oxfordshire
- West Berkshire
- Wycombe and Beaconsfield
Warwickshire
- Warwickshire
West Mercia (Herefordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire)
- Bromsgrove and Redditch
- Herefordshire
- Kidderminster
- Shrewsbury and North Shropshire
- Telford and South Shropshire
- South Worcestershire
West Midlands
- Birmingham
- Coventry District
- Dudley
- Solihull
- Stourbridge and Halesowen
- Sutton Coldfield
- Walsall and Aldridge
- Warley
- West Bromwich
- Wolverhampton
West Yorkshire
- Bradford and Keighley
- Calderdale
- Kirklees (incorporating Huddersfield, Batley and Dewsbury)
- Leeds District
- Wakefield and Pontefract
Wiltshire
- North West Wiltshire
- South East Wiltshire
- Swindon
Wales
- Cardiff
- Carmarthen
- Ceredigion
- Conwy
- Cynon Valley
- De Brycheiniog (south Brecknockshire)
- Denbighshire
- Flintshire
- Gwent
- Gwynedd
- Llanelli
- Merthyr Tydfil
- Miskin, Rhondda Cynon Taff
- Montgomeryshire
- Neath Port Talbot
- Newcastle and Ogmore
- Pembrokeshire
- Radnorshire and North Brecknock
- Swansea County
- Vale of Glamorgan
- Wrexham Maelor
- Ynys Môn/Anglesey
References
- Courts Act 2003
- Local Justice Areas Order 2005
- Local Justice Areas (No.2) Order 2005
- The Local Justice Areas (No.1) Order 2006
- The Local Justice Areas (No.2) Order 2006
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