Court Comparison Contrast Paper
CJA/224 Introduction to Criminal Court Systems

Court Comparison Contrast Paper
During the course of reading this paper you will be introduced to the difference between trial court and appellate court. For example in trial courts there is actually only one judge within the room, he basically decides what can and can’t be used as evidence within the courtroom. In appellate courts there are five groups of three judges who basically divide’s the cases between them.
You will also be to understand the difference between federal and state courts, for instance federal courts simply tend to handle cases such as illegal weapons and drugs that tend to cross our state lines, and state courts basically handle cases that deal’s the juvenile and family cases. After reading this paper will not only be able to understand when and where an appeal begins and ends, but you should also be able to fully understand the functions that between trial and appellate courts.
State Court Each state has its own system of justice that oversees court cases. The judicial system that they employ will oversee a majority of the criminal cases that are presented. There are many levels of trial courts with at least one appellate court that states will have. The majority of states will have courts of general jurisdiction, which will hear major offenses like felonies. Courts of limited jurisdiction which will hear minor offenses. Some states will have a state supreme court to hear appeal processes and there can also be separate courts to hear juvenile cases (Sneb, J. and Sneb II, J. 2008, p.34) For example in Minnesota, there are 87 counties that are organized into 10 Judicial Districts (http://www.mncourts.gov/?page=238) The largest county is Hennepin county which is the 4th district. There are almost 800,000 cases that trial