or "county court", "district court", "magistrate's court" (all from Romain)

according to Cassell's.

The link below on LEO also gives "district council" or "local court"

In the U.S. these courts are often called municipal courts. However the terms vary from state to state. Just don't use district court because that leads to confusion with U.S. district courts that have nothing to do with municipal courts.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/global_law/cases/german/ober/ober_...

"The Amtsgericht (district court) decided on the 23rd December 1982 to . . ."

http://www.surrey.ac.uk/law/personal/Schimpf.htm

"Admitted to the Amtsgericht Hamburg (Local Court of Hamburg) as a Rechtsanwalt (lawyer)."

http://www.pfc.org.uk/legal/echrcom/r-v-ger.txt

"On 8 April 1994 the Mülheim District Court (Amtsgericht) dismissed the applicant's request for . . ."

http://www3.oup.co.uk/ejilaw/hdb/Volume_12/Issue_04/pdf/1207...

"the Republic of Cyprus in Germany applied to the County Court (Amtsgericht) in Hamburg for an order to . . ."

http://members.lycos.co.uk/AlisonGaunt/glosster.htm#GGGGG

"Gericht: names recommended by German FO and Justice Ministry: Amtsgericht = District Court; Arbeitsgericht = Labour Court; Bundesarbeitsgericht = Federal Labour Court; Bundesfinanzhof = Federal Fiscal Court; Bundesgerichtshof = Federal High Court; Bundessozialgericht = Federal Social Court; Bundesverfassungsgericht = Federal Constitutional Court; Bundesverwaltungsgericht = Federal Administrative Court; Finanzgericht = Fiscal Court; Landesarbeitsgericht = Regional Labour Court; Landessozialgericht = Regional Social Court; Landgericht = Regional Court; Oberlandesgericht = Higher Regional Court; Oberverwaltungsgericht, Verwaltungsgerichthof = Higher Administrative Court; Sozialgericht = Social Court / Verwaltungsgericht = Administrative Court . . ."

http://cil.gcal.ac.uk/ConectPublish/ConectPublish/inhistory....

"The Hereditary Health Court is to be connected administratively to the Magistrates Court (Amtsgericht)."

The above are a few of the .uk domain Google English search results. The most popular translation for the UK seems to be "district court" but I share E.Matt's aversion to the term "district court". Possibly for this reason, these two sites from sources which should know what they are talking about, do not use "district court".

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/ascii/wfbcjger.txt

"Courts in Germany deal with both civil and criminal matters. There are four levels of courts that deal with criminal matters: 1)local courts (Amtsgerichte). These court are competent in all criminal matters where a punishment of not more than 3 years imprisonment can be imposed; 2)regional courts (Landgerichte). Both Amtsgerichte and Landgerichte are courts of first instance."

http://judiciary.senate.gov/oldsite/102799cm.htm

"Hague Convention hearings are heard by inexperienced judges and start at the Amtsgericht (lower court) level."

German sites also offer a wide variety of translations:

http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/sls/amtsger.htm

"Since 1878, Saarlouis is seat of an Inferior Court (Amtsgericht). But it was not until 1908 when the Court became its own building which is still in use."

As you can see, the English at the above site might not be considered authoritative! :-)

http://www.jura.uni-sb.de/convention-bruxelles/gemdoc97/html...

"an action against Mr and Mrs Hendrikman before the Amtsgericht (local court), Düsseldorf, in June 198 . . ."

http://www.repas-aeg.de/english/Company/data.html

"Commercial register Amtsgericht Langen [Langen Local Court], HRB 4685"

Fortunately for E.Matt, Dan McCrosky, the US Senate Judiciary Committee and the US DOJ, "local court" is also used by the German Bundestag and Bundesministerium der Justiz at these sites:

http://www.bmj.bund.de/images/11227.pdf

"gradually increased the monetary value governing allocation of disputes between the local courts (Amtsgerichte) and the regional courts (Landgerichte), and created special remedies . . ."

http://www.bmj.bund.de/images/11149.pdf

"The appeal on points of fact and law - which will remain the appeal on the proceedings initiated before a Local Court . . ."

http://www.bmj.bund.de/images/10928.pdf

"Federal Ministry of Justice: German Code of Criminal Procedure

If no venue is established for an offense committed at sea outside the territorial scope of this statute, the venue shall be Hamburg; the competent Local Court shall be Hamburg Local Court."

Although there seems to be no real consensus, my choice would also be "local court (Amtsgericht)". Adding the German term in parentheses will keep you our of trouble.

HTH

Dan

The right answer depends are where it's for. I have given the translations used a lot here in Germany. I must add, though, that the term 'Local Court' is also used a lot. In a US context, I think I'd go with 'District Coutz'