A police court in France is a criminal court which judges all classes of minor offenses committed by adults. More serious offenses are judged by a correctional court (French: tribunal correctionnel) for délits (middling-level crime), or by a cour d'assises for a serious crime.
The police court sits at the tribunal d'instance and is composed of a juge d'instance and a court clerk (French: [[greffier]]). The ministère public is represented by the procureur de la République or one of his representatives, known as substituts (substitutes) if the offense is a fifth-degree petty infraction (French: contravention).
The police tribunal handles contraventions, except offenses punishable by a penalty of imprisonment or of fines greater than 3,000 euros, voire 4,000(? -t) euros of the Code of criminal procedure. The version approved November 18, 2016 provides for a few exceptions, such as an edict of the Conseil d'État. The police tribunal is also competent d'attribution, meaning it also has jurisdiction in matters of customs, as provided by Article 356 of the Code des douanes, Code of Customs, which specifies that "The police courts hear customs offenses and all customs-related matters raised by way of exception."
The police tribunal may handle infractions from any of the following relevant scopes of authority:
The other compétence rules are identical to those of the tribunal correctionnel, (correctional tribunal).