Intro to criminal justice

3. What are the types of, and reasons for, courts having specific types of jurisdiction?

4. What are the roles of
the state court systems?

5. What is the structure and function of the trial courts of general and limited
jurisdiction?

The types of and Reasons for Court jurisdiction

• Exclusive jurisdiction - Only that court can hear a specific case. 
• Concurrent Jurisdiction - Federal or state courts could hear.
• Original Jurisdiction - The court that gets to hear the case first. 
• Appellate Jurisdiction - The power for a higher court to review a lower court's decision. 

The Role of State Court System

State courts are the final mediator of state laws and constitutions. Their interpretation of federal law or the U.S Constitution may be appealed to the U.S Supreme Court. The Supreme Court may choose to hear or not to hear such cases.

The structure and function of the trial court of general and limited jurisdiction

Trial courts are where criminal cases start and finish. The trial court conducts the entire series of acts that conclude in either defendant's release or sentencing.

Trial Court can be further divided into a court of;

• General Jurisdiction - Courts of general jurisdiction are granted authority to hear and decide all issues that are brought before them. 
• Limited Jurisdiction - Courts that only hear and decide certain limited legal issues are courts of limited jurisdiction:
  • Courts of limited jurisdiction hear and decide issues such as traffic tickets or set bail for criminal defendants.
  • Typically, these courts hear certain types of minor civil or criminal cases. 
  • There are approximately 13,000 local courts in the United States.
  • They are called the county, magistrate, justice, or municipal courts.
  • Judges in these courts may be either appointed or elected. 

Step-by-step explanation

Courts determine what really happened and what should be done about it. They decide whether a person committed a crime and what the punishment should be. They are also arranging a peaceful way to decide private disputes that people can't resolve themselves. Depending on the dispute or crime, some cases end up in the federal courts, and some end up in state courts.