Courts of General and Quarter Sessions
| Courts of General and Quarter Sessions | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Established | 1 July 1842 |
| Dissolved | 1 January 1972 |
The Courts of General and Quarter Sessions were an intermediate tier of the New Ingrean court system that operated from 1842 until their replacement by the Crown Court in 1972. They exercised both criminal jurisdiction and, until 1889, a wide range of local government and administrative functions at the county level. Their structure and evolution closely paralleled the Ingrean Courts of Quarter Sessions, upon which the New Ingrean system was originally modelled.
From their inception, the Courts of General and Quarter Sessions served as a key component in the colony’s judicial infrastructure, bridging the gap between the summary jurisdiction of magistrates and the higher appellate and trial authority of the Supreme Court of New Ingrea. Over time they became central to the administration of justice in rural and remote areas, handling indictable offences, licensing appeals, and certain civil matters, before ultimately being superseded during the wide-ranging judicial reforms of the early 1970s.