A state court is a court in one of the 50 state judicial systems of the United States. State courts vary widely in scope and structure. Most state courts and their laws are generally patterned after the English common law, with the exception being structure and substance originally developed in civil law. Each state has its own system, and with a few exceptions, most of the systems embody similar structures and levels of authority.
Over 50 million nontraffic cases are filed in state courts each year, while only about 1 million are filed in federal courts annually. Typically, state courts can hear almost every type of case, conflict, or complaint—both civil and criminal—based upon violation of the state’s constitution or the laws and regulations of the state created by the state’s legislative or regulative bodies under the authority of the state’s constitution. Examples of a few legal matters that state courts will not hear involve bankruptcy, immigration, patents, copyrights, violations of federal criminal law, and other conflicts involving the interpretation or fair application of federal law heard in the federal courts.
Various levels of criminal violations generally appear in state courts, from petty or lower level crimes usually labeled as misdemeanors with punishments generally limited to local incarceration or fine to serious crimes labeled felonies with punishments involving incarceration for longer periods of time, substantial fines, and/or serious long-term collateral consequences. In the civil dispute context, a substantial factor on deciding where a claim can be brought in the state court system depends on the court’s jurisdiction (i.e., the court’s power to adjudicate a case), which is almost always tied to the limited subject matter jurisdiction of the court or to the amount in controversy between the parties.
Although each state may label their courts differently, the basic court in a state is its trial court. Whether labeled circuit courts, superior courts, district courts, trial courts, chancery courts, or courts of common pleas, these trial courts generally have broad general jurisdiction over matters both civil and criminal and are usually located in a county seat and operate as the basic judicial entity for disputes. Although the courts may be in multiple locations or divisions in the larger cities, the basic structure is the same. Also popular throughout the state court system is the use of specialty courts presided over by judges—such as magistrates, associate judges, and court masters— who are hired by the trial judges to perform specific duties in order to ease the burden that number of cases filed in the state courts bring upon the orderly disposition of justice.
Typically, judges in the trial courts are elected politicians, whereas the specialty judges are usually hired for a specific purpose and often answer to the elected judges and serve at will. There is an ongoing discussion as to whether the election of trial judges is good for the system or whether appointment would remove politics from the administration of justice. Some states have attempted reform by making the election of judges nonpartisan, whereas others use elections only for retention purposes.
Most state systems include low-level trial courts—often called municipal courts, justice of the peace courts, magistrate courts, or county courts—that preside over civil disputes involving petty and lesser amounts and low-level crimes, including the violation of misdemeanor crimes, municipal ordinances, and regulations. In some states, these low-level trial courts may be presided over by nonlaw-trained, layman judges who are elected to office. Many states have attempted to create a higher level trial court often by using the term at law in the courts’ description. These courts are presided over by law-trained judges and typically are political positions. These courts handle more complicated matters considered best reserved for the lawyer judge. In general, the main trial court in a county is that created by the constitution of the state; however, for the specific jurisdiction of each level of trial court, state law should be consulted.
Many states include a regional intermediate appellate court to hear intermediate appeals from the trial courts. Some states do not have this system and use intermediate appellate courts only when the cases are assigned by the state’s highest appellate court. These intermediate courts may carry the names court of civil appeals, court of criminal appeals, court of appeals, appellate court, district court of appeals, intermediate court of appeals, court of special appeals, superior court, or other names that indicate their role in the system.
Each state has a court of last resort. Typically called the supreme court, the role of this court is to have statewide jurisdiction in the resolution of matters not resolved to the parties’ satisfaction at the trial court or intermediate appellate level when there are legitimate issues showing error in the lower courts. As with the federal system, not all state appeals make it to the supreme court of the state, as such appeals are usually subject to the court’s discretion to hear the dispute. A few states have a separate court of last resort for criminal matters, but most states’ supreme court hears both civil and criminal matters.
Worthy of note are the tens of thousands of employees of these courts working as magistrates, associate judges, court masters, probation officers, court clerks, law clerks, court reporters, bailiffs, administrators, and other court officers, who are essential to the operation of the state judicial system.
Websites
- United States Courts, Comparing Federal & State Courts. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.uscourts. gov/about-federal-courts/court-role-and-structure/ comparing-federal-state-courts
- S. Legal, State Courts. (2016). Retrieved from http:// system.uslegal.com/state-courts/