Justices of the peace handle both civil and criminal cases, including small claims court, justice court, and administrative hearings. In practical terms, these are lawsuits over debts, evictions, car accidents, unlawful towing, and personal property.
Their criminal workload involves disposing of all class C criminal misdemeanor complaints, such as traffic citations, issuance of bad check, and others. These cases involve payment, setting contested cases for trial, and pretrial hearings with the county prosecutor.