In sermons and in reading the Scripture you probably saw something about a “Judgment Seat”. This was common to a town of any decent size in Israel. In the Book of Ruth, for example, when Boaz goes to gates of the city where the judgment seat is to “redeem” Ruth and Naomi. In that time an unmarried/widowed woman would rely on family to provide for her. The closest man relative would take her in and provide and that man would be the “kinsman redeemer”.
The leaders of the town would meet regularly at the city gate to conduct the business of the town, they would meet where the “Judgment Seat” would be. Today we would go to a courthouse if there is some legal issue we needed to handle. In that day a person would go to the city gate and that is what Boaz, who was the next closest relative to Naomi, did to formalize the arrangement regarding Ruth and her mother in law Naomi, to be their kinsman redeemer. The featured picture shows the judgement seat of this particular town where it has stood for centuries in front of the gate of this particular town in Israel.