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"This article is about a Night Court. For information on the NBC sitcom ""Night Court"", see Night Court."

A Night Court is a special type of court that conducts judicial business, requiring a judge’s presence, during hours or days when a normal courtroom would not be in session.

The Night Courts General Function in Legal Systems

Night courts tend to serve two functions in a legal system. As a forum for matters involving small fines and other penalties, as a judicial forum to hear small civil claims of citizens against one another, and to expedite custody of criminal suspects into state control by providing round-the-clock arraignment service.

The Reason For a Night Court

Night Courts are erected by communities that either develop a backlog of court business over matters of fines, small-claims and criminal arraignment, or they are erected to service the working class population’s need of a court that addresses such issues when the litigants are available. Issues regarding fines and small civil claim disputes are almost entirely situations where the litigants must personally state their case and defend themselves in front of a jurist. Equally common is the fact that such litigants are often otherwise engaged during regular court session hours.

Night Courts generally only convene when all litigants involved prove their other obligations conflict with regular session schedules. The Night Court that results meets during hours later in the day to accommodate the schedule conflict. A municipality may also erect a Night Court to accommodate criminal affairs with the intent to expedite a suspect’s custody transfer. Because crime theoretically knows no specific time of day, a criminal Night Court may operate 24 hours a day with minimal staffing to satisfy an arraignment.

Night Courts Around the World

The popularity of night courts in various locations around the world ebb and flow with the needs of society. Presently, there are several notable places where Night Courts aid a justice system.

• The state Supreme Court of the State of Pennsylvania, USA, in 1995 ruled that in the states constitution did not prevent the erection of Night Courts for various matters, and thus; a statewide initiative began to setup night courts.

• British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in fulfilling a promise to remedy increases in nonviolent quality-of-life crime, used his standing as the head of Parliament to erect a system of criminal night courts. This system of night courts was later found to be ineffective and costly, and thus later abolished.

Night Courts in Popular Culture

From 1984 to 1992, the American television broadcaster NBC aired a situation comedy called Night Court about a young New York City night arraignment court, its criminals, its staff and their lives as they circled around this late-night courtroom.