Oslo District Court is the district court serving Oslo

Oslo

Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. Cases may be appealed to Borgarting Court of Appeal

Borgarting Court of Appeal

Borgarting Court of Appeal is the court of appeal located in Oslo, Norway. It serves the counties of Oslo, Buskerud, Østfold and southern Akershus. The court has 62 judges and 45 administrative staff...

. As the largest district court in Norway, it handles about 20% of all cases in the country. The court handled 3,000 criminal and 2,200 civil cases, as well as 7,200 summary proceedings in 2007.

It is led by a chief justice, and has 100 appointed professional and deputy judges. These are divided into eight sections. In addition, the court has 105 administrative employees, of which 30 are in central administration, 59 in judicial-related jobs and 16 in security. These are led by a managing director.

Oslo is the most frequent user of interpreters

Interpreting

Language interpretation is the facilitating of oral or sign-language communication, either simultaneously or consecutively, between users of different languages...

 of all the courts in the country, accounting for about half the use of interpreters. The most frequent languages are Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

, English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, Somali

Somali language

The Somali language is a member of the East Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Its nearest relatives are Afar and Oromo. Somali is the best documented of the Cushitic languages, with academic studies beginning before 1900....

 and Polish

Polish language

Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

. In 2007, 23% of all cases used interpreters. The court also has a witness support program in cooperation with Oslo Red Cross.

Starting in 1999, the court initiated a court conciliation program to encourage negotiation

Negotiation

Negotiation is a dialogue between two or more people or parties, intended to reach an understanding, resolve point of difference, or gain advantage in outcome of dialogue, to produce an agreement upon courses of action, to bargain for individual or collective advantage, to craft outcomes to satisfy...

s in civil cases. This allows the parties to find a middle ground they are both satisfied with, without creating winners and losers. At the same time, time and costs are reduced. In 2007, 18% of civil cases participated in the program, and of these 74% settled through the program.

The court is located in Oslo Courthouse

Oslo Courthouse

The Oslo Courthouse is located in downtown Oslo, Norway at C.J. Hambros plass 4 and houses the two Oslo District Courts, the tingrett which handles civil and criminal cases, and the byfogdembete which considers other enforcement cases such as marriages, bankruptcy, probate, and official...

, located in the city center. The building opened in 1994, and also houses the urban district court judge. Borgarting Court of Appeal moved to its own courthouse in 2005.