Magistrate judge
- A term generally used in federal courts to describe a judge appointed by the district judges in that court to oversee initial criminal proceedings and decide misdemeanor cases, as well as conducting various pre-trial matters in both civil and criminal cases. They can only decide civil cases if the parties agree.
- The magistrate judge sets bail for defendants so that district judges can focus on other tasks
- Since both parties explicitly agreed to it, the magistrate judge was able to decide the contract case rather than just conducting pre-trial matters.
- The magistrate judge spent the morning deciding misdemeanor cases before moving on to conduct various pre-trial matters for upcoming felony trials.
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