Background Information
Quarter Sessions Courts
The courts of quarter sessions (or quarter sessions) were local courts in the United Kingdom which were so called because they were traditionally held at four set times each year: at Epiphany, Easter, Midsummer and Michaelmas. Quarter sessions generally sat in the seat of each county and county borough. They were held in the United Kingdom from 1388 until 1707 and then in the 18th century. They were abolished in England and Wales in 1972.
The quarter sessions in each county were made up of two or more justices of the peace, presided over by a chairman, who sat with a jury. Chairmen of county sessions did not have to be legally qualified and Bentley notes in English Criminal Justice in the Nineteenth Century that "the reputation of such courts remained consistently bad throughout the century" due to the failure by chairmen to take proper note of evidence, display of open bias against prisoners and the severity of sentences compared to the assizes.
The quarter sessions court dealt with issues of local law and order: misdemeanours, unlicensed beer-selling, issues surrounding highways, illegitimacy, etc.
After 1788, Quarter Sessions courts were set up in New South Wales.
Assizes
The courts of assize (or assizes) were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972 when, together with the quarter sessions, they were abolished by the Courts Act, 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes exercised both civil and criminal jurisdiction, though most of their work was on the criminal side. The assizes heard the most serious cases which were committed to it by the quarter sessions, while the more minor offences were dealt with summarily by justices of the peace in petty sessions (also known as magistrates' courts).
The word assize refers to the sittings or sessions (Old French assises) of the judges, known as justices of assize, who were judges who travelled across the seven circuits of England and Wales, setting up court and summoning juries at the various assize towns.