Police tribunal (Belgium)

Politics of Belgium
Constitution Taxation Constitutional Court
Monarchy Monarch (list) Philippe Duchess of Brabant Elisabeth of Belgium Crown Council Royal Family
Federal Parliament Senate President: Stephanie D'Hose Chamber of Representatives President: Eliane Tillieux
Federal Cabinet De Croo Government Prime Minister: Alexander De Croo
Judiciary Administrative jurisdictions Council of State Highest court Court of Cassation Appellate courts Court of appeal Court of labour Trial courts Court of assizes Tribunal of first instance Civil tribunal Correctional tribunal Family and juvenile tribunal Sentence enforcement tribunal Labour tribunal Enterprise tribunal Minor crimes Minor claims Police tribunal Justice of the peace
Recent elections European 2009 2014 2019 2024 Federal 2007 2010 2014 2019 Regional 2004 2009 2014 2019 Local 2000 2006 2012 2018 Political parties
Subdivisions Communities and regions Provinces Arrondissements Municipalities
Foreign relations France-Belgium relations Belgium-Germany relations Belgium-United Kingdom relations Belgium-Netherlands relations Belgium–Luxembourg relations Politics of the European Union
Belgium portal Other countries
v t e

The police tribunal (Dutch: politierechtbank, French: tribunal de police, German: Polizeigericht) is the traffic court and trial court which tries minor contraventions in the judicial system of Belgium. It is the lowest Belgian court with criminal jurisdiction (in addition to some limited civil jurisdiction). There is a police tribunal for each judicial arrondissement ("district"), except for Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde, where there are multiple police tribunals due to the area's sensitive linguistic situation. Most of them hear cases in multiple seats per arrondissement. As of 2018, there are 15 police tribunals in total, who hear cases in 38 seats. Further below, an overview is provided of all seats of the police tribunal per judicial arrondissement.^[1][2]

A police tribunal is chaired by a judge of the police tribunal, more commonly called police judge (Dutch: politierechter, French: juge de police, German: Polizeirichter). Police judges are professional, law-trained magistrates who are, like all judges in Belgium, appointed for life until their retirement age. The police judges hear cases as single judges, but are always assisted by a clerk. There is also a prosecutor from the public prosecutor's office present who prosecutes (suspected) offenders in the criminal cases the police tribunal hears. The defendants, as well as any victim seeking civil damages, can be assisted or represented by counsel, but this is not required. Lawyers or notaries can act as locum tenens police judge whenever a judge is absent. The organisation of the police tribunals and the applicable rules of civil procedure and criminal procedure are laid down in the Belgian Judicial Code and the Belgian Code of Criminal Procedure. Mind the fact that, despite their name, the police tribunals are not organisationally related to the police.^[1][2][3]