2017 Delaware Code
Title 21 - Motor Vehicles
CHAPTER 7. ENFORCEMENT; ARREST, BAIL AND APPEAL
§ 703. Jurisdiction of offenses.

(a) A person arrested without a warrant for a violation of any section of this title, or arrested for any moving traffic violation or any municipal ordinance regulating traffic within its territorial limits as set forth in Chapter 41 of this title shall have such case heard and determined by a justice of the peace.

(b) Notwithstanding subsection (a) of this section, the arresting officer may issue a summons to the person arrested for an appearance at a subsequent date before a justice of the peace.

(c) The arresting officer shall take the person arrested without a warrant, or shall summon the person arrested to appear at a subsequent date, before a Justice of the Peace Court which is located in the same county wherein the violation occurred, unless a Justice of the Peace Court located in another county is closer to the place where the violation occurred, in which case the arresting officer may take the person arrested without a warrant, or may summon the person arrested to appear at a subsequent date, before said Court.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, any case in which a person is arrested or issued a summons within the corporate limits of the city of Milford for a violation of a provision of this title, with the exception of violations of § 4177 of this title, shall be heard and adjudicated in the nearest available Justice of the Peace Court location in Kent County. Violations of § 4177 of this title within the corporate limits of the city of Milford may be initiated or transferred to any Justice of the Peace Court location so designated by the Justice of the Peace Court to hear such cases. Once properly within the jurisdiction of a particular Justice of the Peace Court location, that location shall retain jurisdiction until final adjudication, unless a transfer of venue is permitted by statute or court rule.

(d) Anything else in this or any other chapter or title notwithstanding, those proceedings in the Justice of the Peace Courts specified by court rule may be conducted by audiovisual device. Audiovisual monitors shall be situated in the courtroom and where the defendant is present so as to provide the public, the court and the defendant with a view of the proceedings. Such proceedings may be conducted by a Justice of the Peace Court in the same or another county from that in which the defendant is physically located.

(e) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section to the contrary, in those incorporated municipalities which provide duly constituted alderman's courts or mayor's courts, the alderman and mayor shall continue to hear and adjudicate those cases in which a person is arrested without a warrant and where the alderman's court or the mayor's court is the court of original jurisdiction.

(f) Notwithstanding subsection (e) of this section, no alderman, mayor or other municipal official shall be authorized to adjudicate any alleged moving traffic violation unless said court complies with the following:

(1) All convictions in said alderman's court or mayor's court for moving traffic violations and the disposition of those cases shall become a matter of record to be filed with the State Division of Motor Vehicles. Records of all such convictions shall be forwarded to the Division no later than 10 days after disposition of the case.

(2) The adjudicating official shall receive a salary but no other compensation for performing such official's duties. All fees, fines, costs and other funds collected by the court in the course of its business shall be deposited to the account of the municipality from which the adjudicating official derives authority.

(g) Superior Court shall have jurisdiction to issue writs of mandamus to adjudicating officials of any alderman's court or mayor's court to compel compliance with this section.

36 Del. Laws, c. 10, § 145; Code 1935, § 5683; 21 Del. C. 1953, § 704; 50 Del. Laws, c. 414, § 1; 55 Del. Laws, c. 256, §§ 1, 2; 56 Del. Laws, c. 402; 57 Del. Laws, c. 670, § 7B; 58 Del. Laws, c. 447; 60 Del. Laws, c. 553, §§ 1, 2; 63 Del. Laws, c. 221, §§ 1-3; 70 Del. Laws, c. 186, § 1; 71 Del. Laws, c. 43, § 3; c. 176, § 27; 76 Del. Laws, c. 28, § 1.;