State & Federal Courts<\/p>\n
State and Federal Courts<\/p>\n
States generally have a\u00a0state trial court\u00a0that can also be the appellate court for small claims court appeals. Appellate courts are the part of the judicial system that is responsible for hearing and reviewing appeals from legal cases that have already been heard in a trial-level or other lower court.\u00a0This trial court is usually called superior court, circuit court, or county court. State trial courts are generally all-purpose and hear civil litigation matters, state criminal trials, and nonlitigation cases including family law, wills and probate, foreclosures, and juvenile adjudications. States can, however, create \u201cspecialty courts\u201d to hear special matters and free up the trial courts for basic criminal prosecutions and civil litigation trials.\u00a0Litigation\u00a0refers to the process of resolving disputes by filing or answering a complaint through the public court system.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0intermediate appellate court\u00a0for the state court system is usually called the state court of appeals, although some smaller or low-population states may have only one appellate court called the state supreme court. The state courts of appeal provide appeals of right, meaning that they must hear an appeal coming from the state\u2019s trial court if adequate grounds are present. The highest appellate court for the state court system is usually called the\u00a0state supreme court. In states that have both intermediate and high-level appellate courts, the state supreme court is a discretionary court that gets to select the appeals it hears, very similar to the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The federal court system also has three tiers: district courts, courts of appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court. The\u00a0U.S. district courts\u00a0are the trial courts of the national system, in which federal cases are tried, witness testimonies are heard, and evidence is presented. No district court crosses state lines, and a single judge oversees each one. Some cases are heard by a jury\u00a0and some are not.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0U.S. courts of appeals, or circuit courts, are overseen by a rotating panel of three judges who do not hold trials but instead review the rulings of the trial (district) courts within their geographic circuit. The circuit courts are often referred to as the intermediate appellate courts of the federal system\u00a0since their rulings can be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Moreover, different circuits can hold legal and cultural views, which can lead to differing outcomes on similar legal questions. In such scenarios, clarification from the U.S. Supreme Court might be needed.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The U.S. Supreme Court has nine justices\u2014one chief justice and eight associate justices. As the national court of last resort for all other courts in the system, the Supreme Court plays a vital role in setting the standards of interpretation that the lower courts follow. The Supreme Court\u2019s decisions are binding across the nation and establish the precedent by which future cases are resolved in all the system\u2019s tiers.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Types of Jurisdictions<\/p>\n
Every court system has jurisdiction over certain cases, from enforcing traffic laws to hearing capital murder charges. There are four types of jurisdictions:<\/p>\n
Original Jurisdiction\u00a0– the court that gets to hear the case first. For example, municipal courts typically have original jurisdiction over traffic offenses the occur within city limits.<\/p>\n
Appellate Jurisdiction\u00a0– the power for a higher court to review a lower court’s decision. For example, the Texas Court of Appeals has appellate jurisdiction over the district courts.<\/p>\n
Personal Jurisdiction\u00a0– the power of a court over specific litigants. It requires litigants to have some form of minimum contact\u00a0with the state where the case is filed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Subject Matter Jurisdiction\u00a0– \u00a0the requirement that a given court has power to hear the specific kind of claim that is brought to that court.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Additional Resources<\/p>\n
Chapter 6: Federal Court System<\/p>\n
Chapter 7: State Court Systems<\/p>\n
References and Resources<\/p>\n
Listed below are the references and resources used to curate this module.<\/p>\n
Jurkowski, Stephanie (2017). Subject Matter Jurisdiction. Cornell Law School. Retrieved from law.cornell.edu\/wex\/subject_matter_jurisdiction.<\/p>\n
Legal Information Institute (2020). Litigation. Cornell Law School. Retrieved from law.cornell.edu\/wex\/litigation.<\/p>\n
Lumen Learning (2020). American Government. Lumen Candela. Retrieved from courses.lumenlearning.com\/amgovernment\/.<\/p>\n
Lumen Learning (2020). Criminal Justice. Lumen Candela. Retrieved from courses.lumenlearning.com\/atd-bmcc-criminaljustice\/.<\/p>\n
Lumen Learning (2020). Legal and Social Environment. Lumen Candela. Retrieved from courses.lumenlearning.com\/legsocenvirnbusleap\/<\/p>\n
Lumen Learning (2020). Texas Government. Lumen Learning. Retrieved from courses.lumenlearning.com\/atd-odessa-texasgov\/.<\/p>\n
Kenton, Will (2019). Appellate Courts. Investopedia. Retrieved from\u00a0investopedia.com\/terms\/a\/appellate-courts.asp.<\/p>\n
Previous:\u00a0Sources of Law<\/p>\n
Next:\u00a0Civil Litigation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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