Supreme Court of British Columbia

The Supreme Court of British Columbia is the superior trial court of the Canadian province of British Columbia. It hears civil and criminal cases as well as some appeals from the Provincial Court of British Columbia and from certain administrative tribunals, and its own judgments are appealed to the British Columbia Court of Appeal. The court has 90 judicial positions plus supernumerary judges, and thirteen masters, now called associate judges, who handle chambers applications. Its predecessor was set up in 1859 as the Supreme Court of the Mainland of British Columbia, to be told apart from the Supreme Court of Vancouver Island, and the two merged in 1870 under the present name. Justices are appointed by the federal cabinet, while associate judges are appointed by the province. The court sits in eight judicial districts called counties, a legacy of the former County Court that was merged into it in 1990.