District court

United States district courts also exist in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the District of Columbia, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

In Texas, the Texas District Courts are trial courts of general jurisdiction, hearing all felony and divorce cases, election controversies, and many civil matters.

They hear indictable (serious) criminal offences excluding treason, murder and, in some states, manslaughter.

The District Court in Hong Kong, established in 1953, has limited jurisdiction in both civil and criminal matters.

With effect from 1 December 2003, it has civil jurisdiction to hear monetary claims up to HK$1 million or, where the claims are for recovery of land, the annual rent or rateable value does not exceed HK$240,000.

In its criminal jurisdiction, the court may try the more serious cases, with the main exceptions of murder, manslaughter and rape.

In criminal matters, they try cases where the accused faces a penalty of at least seven years imprisonment.

[6] The District Court of New Zealand deals with all criminal matters other than murder, manslaughter and specified offences such as treason.

Austria has some 200 district, or local, courts, which decide minor civil and criminal cases.

The court handles civil claims of up to €15,000 and summary criminal trials (minor offences tried by a judge alone where the maximum penalty is 12 months on indictment in the Circuit Court and the granting of licences for the sale of alcohol.

While relatively recent creations in their current form, the term tingsrätt refers to the ting ("thing"), the ancient term for governing assemblies in these and other Nordic and Germanic countries, where disputes would be brought up to be settled.

The specific term tingsrätt was used for courts already in 17th century Sweden, but was later discontinued.

It's the court of first instance; dealing with criminal cases, some civil law disputes and a number of non-contentious matters.

In 1971, the tingsrätt's became the district courts of Sweden, replacing the previous distinction between rådhusrätt in larger cities and the häradsrätt's for the assize courts of Sweden in other parts of the country.

They handled many cases of breach of the peace, drunkenness, minor assaults, petty theft, and offences under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982.

District courts operated under summary procedure and could not impose a fine in excess of £2,500 or sentence an offender to more than 60 days in prison.