scabinis

According to Charlemagne, no one should come with the count to a king's placitum unless he had a case to present, "qui causam suam quaerit, exceptis scabinis septem, qui ad omnia Placita esse debent."

William Klapp Williams - The Communes of Lombardy from the VI. to the X. Century: An Investigation of the Causes Which Led to the Development: Of Municipal Unity Among the Lombard Communes.

But even if we allow to the scabini the right of holding placita, these must have been of a lower grade than those of the counts or of the missi regii; for to the mallum of the latter an appeal was allowed from the judgment of the scabini, as we see from the law of Charlemagne, which says that: "Si quis caussam judicatam repetere in mallo praesumserit ... a Scabinis, qui caussam ipsam prius judicaverint, accipiat."

William Klapp Williams - The Communes of Lombardy from the VI. to the X. Century: An Investigation of the Causes Which Led to the Development: Of Municipal Unity Among the Lombard Communes.

In fact, the king and his ministers, in the interests of impartial justice, kept constant watch on the acts and judgments of the scabini, and a law of Lothar I. tells us that "quicumque de Scabinis deprehensus fuerit propter munera, aut propter amicitam injuste judicare" should be sent up to the king to render an account of the manner in which he had fulfilled the duties of his office.

William Klapp Williams - The Communes of Lombardy from the VI. to the X. Century: An Investigation of the Causes Which Led to the Development: Of Municipal Unity Among the Lombard Communes.