Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, the district court (, literally " thing court") is the first

court A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and Administration of justice, administer justice in Civil law (common law), civil, Criminal law, criminal, an ...

instance, and handles both

criminal In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

and civil cases. The chief judge of a district court is the chief district judge (). The ruling of the district court may be

appeal In law, an appeal is the process in which Legal case, cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of cla ...

ed to the next level of court, the

court of appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

, and the court of appeal's ruling may in turn be appealed to the

supreme court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

, but only in select cases of precedential relevance admitted by the supreme court. Thus the vast majority of court cases are decided on by the district court or the court of appeal. The term ''tingrett'' for the district courts was introduced in 2002, replacing the previous terms city court (''byrett'') and district court (''herredsrett''). Historically the district courts outside the cities were known as ''sorenskriveri'' (office of a ''sorenskriver''), and consisted of a single (chief) district judge and often one or two assistant judges. The district usually included multiple parishes/municipalities, and the district judge was typically the highest state official within his jurisdiction, with an almost all-encompassing area of jurisdiction and an important role in the regional state administration.

Criminal cases

Since August 1995, all criminal cases which go to court are tried at the district court first. Prior to this, the most serious cases were tried in the

Court of appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

(''lagmannsrett''). Regular trials are usually held before a panel of three judges, one professional and two lay

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

s. In particularly difficult cases the bench may consist of five judges (two professional and three lay judges). Verdicts and sentences are determined by a majority vote, with the lay judges' votes counting the same as the professional judge. If there is a full confession, and the defendant agrees to it, the trial may be held before a single professional judge who hears the case and determines sentencing.

Civil cases

The district court is the second tier in most civil cases, the first tier being the conciliation board (''forliksråd''). Certain cases cannot be held at the conciliation board, including family law, patent and trademark issues, cases against the authorities, and cases where an independent complaints committee has issued an opinion. In addition, larger cases where both sides are representad by attorneys, and other cases where extrajudicial mediation have taken place, may bypass the conciliation board and go straight to the district court. The district court also hears appeals from the conciliation board. Civil cases are normally held before a single professional judge, but either side can demand two lay judges be seated as well. In some cases the law demands that there be two lay judges with competence in the subject matter. In 2021, there are 23 district courts in Norway.

References

{{Courts of Norway Law of Norway Courts in Norway