US Law 101: The Court System

[Rin]

Hello:

First I just wanted to greet everyone and say thank you to everyone who has written an article in this University. I found these articles very interesting to read and now am hoping to contribute my own in the form of a "classroom" system. I'll be periodically updating this post with "units" of information. As a disclaimer please do not take this as professional advice, I am just someone who is interested in law and likes to write about it. Without further ado here it is.

US Law 101: Court System
Unit 1- Introduction to the Court System

Why have a court system?:

Have you ever wondered why do we have a court system? Why not just settle our disputes on our own? Well in my opinion it is because the parties involved cant be trusted to come to an honest and fair conclusion about the dispute that is occurring. We have the court system in place in order to make a judgement on a situation that is recognized by the nation and seeks to render a fair judgement. If we did not have this system in place, their would be a void that would be opened and lawlesness would abound. So how does the court operate and how is it structured? Well, the US has what is known as a dual court system.

Dual Court System:

The dual court system in the US is a unique structure. Their are two levels to the court system, State and Federal. The state courts consists of three types of court, a state Trial Court (either limited or general jurisdiction, more below), a state court of appeals and a state surpreme court. The federal court system is also composed of three types of court, the US Circuit Courts, the Courts of Appeal and everyone knows about the US Surpreme Court. Now each court has a type of case that it can hear depending on the jurisdiction the court holds, limited jurisdiction courts can only hear a cade of a paticular matter (for example a traffic court can only hear cases about traffic violations while a family court can only hear cases about a divorce or custody over a child). A court of general jurisdiction can hear any type of case, and an appelate court can recieve cases that are appealed to it (after having been tried in a lower court, more on this below). The difference between whether a case starts out in a state or federal court depends on the crime being comitted, like a murder being comitted in a state vs a bank robber going to multiple states to rob banks. So how does a case go through all of these levels of court?

A cases life through the court system:

Well first it has to go to either a state or federal court. For this example, I will be assuming that the case was a major crime or civil suit (so no municipal courts). To keep it simple, if a case has a impact on the greater country or has to do with federal law (Copyright infringement as an example) it will probably wind up going to the first level of federal court (US District court). Other cases are heard by a court of general jurisdiction in a state (county court, superior Court, etc...). Now a case will have an outcome ranging from a plea deal or settlement all the way to a conviction or confirmed damages (more on these subjects in a later topic). If either party to a case does not like the outcome of a trial, they have the option of appealing the ruling to a higher court (in the case of civil cases, if criminal only a defendent can appeal.) Now an appelate court rarely has trials, they just review an appeal and can choose to examine the lower courts ruling. If the apellate court agrees with a lower courts ruling, it affirms the decision of the lower court. If the appelate court finds a defect it may modify the ruling or even nullify it. In addition the appelate court can also remand the case back to the lower court in order to fix the errors. A party can keep appealing to higher courts if they do not like the decision but it is always the appelate courts decision whether to accept the appeal, the case moves through the levels until either the appelate court denies the appeal or overturns the ruling. Only in extremely major circumstances (or when the constitutional rights of the individual are in question in a criminal case) is the matter ever brought to the surpreme court.

Conclusion:

If you have made it this far I congratulate and thank you for taking the time to read this unit. This was just a general overview, I plan to get more specific and detail heavy in later units. If anyone has any comments or concerns with the material please feel free to message me through the forums or post a reply down below. More articles are on their way, and if you have a subject you would like to hear about from me, shoot me a message and I'll see if I can create something about it.

 

[Rin]

Unit 2: Courtroom Trial Officers

Introduction:
In this unit, I will be focusing on the people involved in a case when the case comes to trial. This will consist of the prosecutorial staff (or plaintiff in civil cases), defense staff, judges and other miscellaneous roles that are important but dont directly influence the trial.

Prosecutorial staff:
The prosecutorial staff in a court consists of a prosecutor (or plaintiff) and sometimes another lawyer or associate who serves as an aide or is a "2nd chair" in the case. The prosecutors job is to present the evidence obtained to the court and to ensure that enough evidence has been obtained to convict the defendent beyond all reasonable doubt (or in civil cases, just show a preponderence of evidence, more on that later). Usually this individual is employed by a government office of some sort, from city prosecutors all the way to US Attorneys, the job is, essentially, the same. The prosecutor is also responsible for examining witnesses and objecting to any action the defense might make that is not legal. The prosecutor is assisted by law enforcement personal in obtaining enough evidence to warrant filing charges and also decides whther to move a case forward to trial or to try and arrange a plea deal. The prosecutor is opposed by the defense staff.

Defense staff:
The defense staff is reaponsible for, as its name implies, mounting a defense agansit the charges or civil suit brought before the court. The defense attorneys job is to find a reason and evidence that make sure that their is doubt cast upon whether thier client is guilty of what the prosecutors are accusing them of. The defense does not just present facts but also analyisez how the defendent was arrested, was due process followed throughout the process, was the defendent properly mirandized, etc... In this function not only does the defense try and cast doubt of the crime but also ensures that their clients rights are being upheld. The defense attorney may also try and arrange a plea bargin depending on how the case is progressing and suggest that their client either accept or deny it, but its the clients choice, the attorney just reccomends the best option. The defense might also be a government employee, what is known as a public defender. Both of these sides ultimately just present evidence and facts, it is up to the judicial staff to determine the outcome.

Judicial Staff:
The judicial staff is different as it concerns two bodies, the judge and the jury. Starting with the judge, the judge or judges are the profeassionals who perside over a trial in the court room. They hear arguments, recieve presented evidence and ensure the law is being followed within bounds of the denfendents rights and that the trial is fair and impartial. Depending on the case, the power of a judge can fluctuate. For example, in most criminal cases in aware of, the judge acts as the sentincing official and does not determine the guilt of the individual. Meanwhile in other areas such as family court, they can issue rulings without the need of a jury. The jurys job is to receieve the evidence and facts of a case and determine guilt.

In criminal cases, a jury is a randomly selected pool of individuals acquired to determine the guilt of a defendent. One of our rights is to be judged by "an impartial jury of peers" and that is what the jury is there for, to ensure a fair trial. Jury members recieve and hear arguments and evidence of a case and then once all closing statements are made they meet privately to discuss findings. They then must decide what the verdict is, and their decision in most cases must be unanimous in a criminal case. Now, in civil cases, their may or may not be a jury, the job is the same, to determine whether the defendent is "guilty" of what occured. The difference is their is a different standard of evidence in a civil case, instead of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt the plaintiff must show a preponderence of evidence, but I will save that for a different topic!

Miscellaneous staff:
These individuals do not have a direct impact on the outcome of a trial but are no less important for the running of a smooth trial.

Court clerk:
The court clerk is responsible for ensuring that all records of the court are kept up to date and sending different types of legal notices to the concerned parties and legal teams. During a trial, the clerk is also usually the one to administer the oath of a witness.

Bailiff:
A bailiff is usually the legal officer of the court who is responsible to serving legal notices and handles seizures and other processes. While not needes to be a peace officer providing courtroom security, often these days bailiff is the title given to those peace officers who provide security to the court while the duties previously mentioned are either absorbed by the officers or given to a seperate office (such as constable.)

Conclusion:
Thank you for your time reading this today. I plan to have more units out soon and hope to get to at least 4 units and move on to other subjects. As always, please feel free to message me or comment if their is something you would like to see me write about, or if you see something you would.like edited on this post, let me know.

 

[QuietDad]

In the US, every state has two more layers, a municipal court in every township and a county Superior Court. Some Counties have Appeals courts too