Court System Paper
Teresa Wilson
CJA 204
Dec. 5, 2011
Mrs. Dorey

Court System Paper The court systems have been around for hundreds of years. Our court system has come a very long way since then. I mean back then our first court was actually back in the 1789 which was small and hierarchy compared to the was courts are now days. In the 1789 the first bill was put into action. From this we got what is called “the original American court system for resolving criminal and civil dispute.”( Schmalleger, 2009. Our state courts have developed several models. They have followed the Federal Judiciary Act of 1789, which later became the reorganization Act of 1801, which has made more models for the state courts. They follow the federal model development three-tiered structure. They are 1.) Trial courts of limited jurisdiction, 2.) Trial courts of general jurisdiction and 3.) Appellate courts. It was soon found that the three-tiered models were not that great. It did provide local and specialized courts proliferated. Traffic courts, magistrates courts, and probate courts, just to name a few, that functioned at a lower levels. The (ABA) better known as the American Bar Association and even the American Judicator Society. Helped the simplification of state court structures, they also help the state form the models. Among the state courts there are different levels of courts, they are the state trial courts that criminal cases begin. In the trail courts bail is set, takes pleas and also conducts trials. They are also known as lower courts, because they are limited or special jurisdiction. Lower courts only hear less serious criminal cases, which are less that involve misdemeanors, or hear special types. Like traffic violation, family disputes and small claims. The next state court we have is the state appellate courts, here cases can be appealed, as to which the appellate court is also known as the court of appeals. Each state has supreme courts, although 39 of our states just have the intermediate appellate courts. The next state court would be our Supreme Courts. There trails of higher levels will be tried. It is also known or even refers to as the Court of Last Resort. Supreme courts usually have either five to nine justices on the panel, which can hear the trials. But depending on what state you are in, they maybe only 5 justices to hear your case. In the supreme courts the mostly hear the lower level court cases, Example they hear issues and rulings that deal with the state or statutory issues. And if it is not settled by then it will be on to the appeal courts in the Federal Courts where it is then heard. The federal courts are the last step. Our federal courts have always been around, our federal courts where made by our U.S. Constitution. In the article 111, section 1,, our constitution lets us know that our Supreme Courts and even the Courts of Congress will from time to time will establish and ordain. And then there is the part of the constitution that some state may have different jurisdiction over some cases. The Federal Courts will and can have settled some of the disputes between states. Federal Courts have three different and important levels of court. I will try and cover a little of each of the stages of our Federal Courts. The Federal Courts we have now are the U.S. District courts and the U.S. Courts of Appeal and then there is the U.S. Supreme Court. They each play a different part in our government, and all are very important. Each of the courts has their own way that they do things, and how they are run. The first court I would like to talk a little about is the U.S. District court. These courts can handle trial court cases used by the federal court systems. Within the trial courts there are two other courts that handle different jurisdictions, one handles the international courts and the oversee the trade and customs issues. And the other one deals with monetary damages that deal only with the damages that are against the United States. And the trial courts have limits that are set by our congress; these courts go by jurisdiction to hear all of the civil matters. There about 94 different federal districts with at least one in every state, but in some states has four of them. Depending on the state there may be more districts. Some of the cases have the original jurisdiction over the cases that are in violations of one the federal statutes. The district courts consist of 650 judges, which are because some of the courts are busier than the others. The ones that are at a lower level and slower pace have only 27 judges working with them. These judges are appointed by our president and many of them serve as judges for the rest of their life. The next federal court would be the U.S. Appeals. In these courts there are 94 judicial districts, and they are made up into 12 regional courts. They are also called the circuit courts. And depending on the court case load there can be up to 12 judges that hear the cases. These courts hear cases from all criminal appeals, which include the district courts. And these kinds of courts cases are heard by a panel of only three court judges instead of being heard by all of them. The next federal court would be the Supreme Court. This court is the highest court there is anywhere in the United States. Here if a case has been agreed to be heard, the paper work for the case is sent for them to be gone over. And then it only hears very few of them. The cases that get sent to them seems be a great number, but only a few hundred or so the court agrees to be reviewed. In conclusion I have learned how our State and Federal Court Systems are ran and what goes on with them. The dual court system comes into play with each branch of our courts systems. Without the dual court systems that we now have the court cases that come up would take longer and would go very slow, due to the fact there is not a lot of judges to hear the cases. And the ones that need more attention might not get the kind of attention it really needs.