The Provincial Court of Saskatchewan is the provincial court of record for the province of

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

. It hears matters relating to criminal law, youth law, civil law, family law, traffic law and municipal bylaws.

Jurisdiction

The Provincial Court is a creation of

statute A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs the legal entities of a city, state, or country by way of consent. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. Statutes are rules made by ...

, and as such its

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels. J ...

is limited to those matters permitted by statute. It has no

inherent jurisdiction Inherent jurisdiction is a doctrine of the English common law that a superior court has the jurisdiction to hear any matter that comes before it, unless a statute or rule limits that authority or grants exclusive jurisdiction to some other cou ...

, other than to the limited degree in which it may control its own procedures. In criminal matters, it is a trial court for all summary conviction offences. For indictable criminal offences, it can be a trial court if an accused person

elect An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...

s to have his or her trial in that court. When an accused charged with an indictable offence elects trial by a

superior court In common law systems, a superior court is a court of general jurisdiction over civil and criminal legal cases. A superior court is "superior" in relation to a court with limited jurisdiction (see small claims court), which is restricted to civi ...

(the Saskatchewan Court of King's Bench), the preliminary inquiry will be held in the Provincial Court. The Provincial Court is also designated as the Youth Justice Court under the

Youth Criminal Justice Act The ''Youth Criminal Justice Act'' (YCJA; french: Loi sur le système de justice pénale pour les adolescents) (the ''Act'') is a Canadian statute, which came into effect on April 1, 2003. It covers the prosecution of youths for criminal offenc ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

. In civil matters, the Small Claims division of the court is limited to claims for up to $30,000. The Provincial Court also has limited family law jurisdiction, except for

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving th ...

proceedings and the division of matrimonial

property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...

Judges of the Court

The Court is composed of the Chief Judge and 48 other judges. The judges are appointed by the provincial government. To be eligible for appointment, a person must have at least 10 years' experience as a lawyer, or have other legal experience which is satisfactory to the Judicial Council of Saskatchewan. Once appointed, judges are independent of the government, and can only be removed from office following the procedure set out in the Act. The judges serve until age 65, although the Chief Judge may grant an extension up to age 70.

Current Judges

Sittings of the Court

The Provincial Courts has permanent offices in 13 towns and cities: Estevan, La Ronge, Lloydminster, Meadow Lake, Melfort, Moose Jaw, North Battleford, Prince Albert, Regina, Saskatoon, Swift Current, Wynyard and Yorkton. The Court also sits in almost 70 smaller centres across the province. Judges of the Provincial Court are addressed as "Your Honour", or "His/Her Honour".

History

The Provincial Court superseded the former Magistrate's Court,During an interim period as the transition was made, qualified lawyers appointed to the Magistrate's Court bench were deemed "Judges of the Magistrate's Court. at which time the

stipendiary magistrate 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, where they sat in the lowest-level criminal ...

s were replaced by qualified lawyers.

Courts of Saskatchewan

There are three main courts in Saskatchewan: *

Court of Appeal for Saskatchewan The Court of Appeal for Saskatchewan (SKCA) is a Canadian appellate court. Jurisdiction and structure The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal is the highest court in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. There are 8 official judicial positions, incl ...

appellate court A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of ...

; highest court of Saskatchewan. * Court of King's Bench for Saskatchewan superior trial court of Saskatchewan with inherent and general jurisdiction * Provincial Court of Saskatchewan –

court of first instance A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accorda ...

; trial court with jurisdiction defined by statute

Notes

External links

Courts of Saskatchewan

Provincial Court Act 1998

Saskatchewan Archives Board , Court Records
{{Courts of Canada Saskatchewan courts

1978 establishments in Canada Courts and tribunals established in 1978