Court systems between states can vary significantly while maintaining the same general functions. Georgia state court structure is set up to handle a large number of proceedings. To understand how the system is able to accommodate the numerous counties and the growing population we must consider the types of courts that are in place, the process of putting judges into place, and how the jury is chosen to facilitate the courts.
Civil courts handle jury trials in civil matters. There is a jurisdictional limit of $25,000 placed on civil courts. There are two courts of this type in the state and they are located in Bibb County and Richmond County. Appeals from civil courts are made directly to the Georgia Court of Appeals.
Municipal courts have limited jurisdiction over violations of city ordinances, the issuance of criminal warrants, and traffic violations within city limits. Municipal courts also conduct preliminary hearings. There are 370 municipal courts that are funded by the city or town in which they preside. 350 judges oversee the courts and they are either appointed or elected.
Each of the 159 counties in the state of Georgia has a magistrate court. Funded by the county, magistrate court has limited jurisdiction over civil matters such as county ordinance violations, check fraud, landlord/tenant disputes, and eviction proceedings. Criminal matters in which magistrate courts have jurisdiction include certain minor offenses, holding preliminary hearings, issuing warrants to law enforcement officials and in some cases setting bail for defendants. There are 159 Chief Magistrates that are either elected or appointed depending on the county. An additional 354 Magistrates that have been appointed by the Chief Magistrate serve...
... middle of paper ...
... diploma, and must be a county resident for at least one year. Position of magistrate is gained either through appointment or partisan countywide election. State court judges are elected through nonpartisan countywide elections and must be a county resident. They must be at least 25 years of age, have 7 years experience practicing law, and be a state resident for a minimum of 3 years. Superior Court judges are required to have 7 years experience practicing law, be a circuit resident, be a state resident for a minimum of 3 years, and be no younger than 30. Superior court judges are elected in nonpartisan countywide elections.
Supreme Court and Court of Appeals judges are elected in nonpartisan statewide elections. Mid-term vacancices are filled by appointment. State law requires that nominees are state residents and have practiced law for a minimum of seven years.
...er to adjudicate a case, or hear about a case and then decide on it. These types of cases do not involve as many parties to reach decision. Criminal cases for example, typically involve a plaintiff, defendant, a lawyer for each party, a judge, and a jury. Administrative law cases do not have a jury. A judge will then make a decision after all evidence is reviewed. If the party is not pleased with that decision may appeal the case. From there, it is heard by an appellate board. If the party is still displeased, they can request that it be appealed a second time and it is then moved to federal court (Beatty, Samuelson, Bredeson 68).
The Circuit Court is where most criminal and civil court cases take place. There are twenty Circuit Courts in the state of Florida. According to the Florida Courts website, “The Constitution provides that a circuit court shall be established to serve each judicial circuit established by the Legislature. Within each circuit, there may be any number of judges, depending upon the population and caseload of the particular area.” (FL Courts, n.d.) Lastly, the final court system, and the second of two Trial Courts in Florida, is the County Courts. There is a County Court in each of Florida’s sixty-seven counties. County Court judges serve a six-year term and may be assigned to help out in Circuit Court cases if needed. The number of judges in a County Court varies because the populations of each county are different, some being larger than others. Florida Courts website states, “The county courts are sometimes referred to as "the people's courts," probably because a large part of the courts' work involves voluminous citizen disputes, such as traffic offenses, less serious criminal matters (misdemeanors), and relatively small monetary disputes.” (FL Courts,
In the Texas court system, judges are elected instead of appointed like in the federal government. In the federal government, the president appoints members to the Supreme Court. This appointment then heads to Senate where the members of Senate will take a vote
...are generally at a county level, which are decided by judges who base their decisions on information presented in court. At the state level, there are state appellate courts. This type of court takes place when a defendant loses a trial and questions concerning the law arise. A smell number of cases go to the appellate court. The federal court consists of the Supreme Court and District courts. Each District court is placed due to a specific geographical area. These courts rule on federal cases such as fraud or bank robberies. All federal cases are heard in front of a jury.
In 1822, Stephen F. Austin established one of the first courts in Texas and appointed a provisional justice of peace. Since Texas was a part of Mexico at the time, the Mexican governor replaced the justice of peace with three elected officials. (Utexas) Soon after Independence, the republic of Texas under the 1836 Constitution, established a supreme court and allowed Congress to create inferior courts. Judges in such courts were to be elected by Congress. Counties, at the time, had County and Justice of Peace courts, whose judges were popularly elected. With the entrance of Texas into the Union and the adoption of numerous constitutions during the period, Texas retained a similar judicial structure. The current 1876 Constitution created a Supreme Court with appellate civil jurisdiction, the court of appeals, a large number of district, county and justice of peace courts and authorized the legislature to create further courts as necessary. Overtime, the legislature added a number of layers to the judicial system creating a vast and complex judicial system with numerous overlapping jurisdictions between courts. Due to the complicated nature of the current judicial system in Texas, this paper will start by giving a brief explanation of the structure of the current judicial system in Texas and will move on by identifying some strengths and weaknesses in the current system and the need for reforms, present numerous proposed reforms and analyzes why the proposed reforms failed.
Now, the district court system is the beginning step of the judicial system. A good amount of the case handled by the district court system is either criminal or civil trial cases. According to Roger Miller, “trial courts that have general jurisdiction as to the subject matter may be called county, district, superior, or circuit courts.” The majority of their cases are to be handled in-county first before proceeding further through the court system. Just as businesses and organizations have a chain-of-command or protocol system the government has the
“A court of appeals hears appeals from the district courts located within its circuit, as well as appeals from decisions of federal administrative agencies.” Most of the appeals from federal district courts develop into the court of appeals “serving the circuit in which the case was first heard. Federal appellate courts” have required jurisdiction over the agreement of district courts within their boundaries. Unlawful appeals from federal district courts are generally tried by committees of three inspectors situated on a court of appeals instead of by every judge of each boundary. “Appeals generally fall into one of three categories; frivolous appeals, ritualistic appeals,
Problem solving courts can affect the entire judicial system by weeding out cases that can go to a drug court, traffic court, or whichever
The Municipal Courts tries cases of shoplifting and 1oz and under marijuana cases while also issuing out warrants. Probate Courts involve estates, last will and testaments, and power of attorney cases. The Magistrate Courts begin to deal with civil cases, issuing warrants on a person, and/or restraining (protective) orders. The Juvenile Courts deals with juveniles and the crimes that they commit and/or the welfare. State Courts have jurisdiction over the whole state; basically this means that the GPS can issue anyone within the state of Georgia a
...ies. Depending on the states’ political culture, the judge is elected through popular election either with partisan or nonpartisan elections. The political culture of the state affects the judges’ capabilities to make decisions. Judges are to uphold strict interpretation based on past precedent but it is difficult with social pressure. For example, moralistic Massachusetts passed civic unions for gays, however, in traditionalistic state Georgia would likely deny gay rights.
The largest trial court in Texas is the district courts, which often have general jurisdiction over a broad range of civil cases and criminal. Some district court specializing in a certain field, such as juvenile or family law. There is also the county judge, county court (and charter county court at law), probate court as prescribed by law, the justices of peace, and municipal court.
The similarities between Federal and California Trial Courts are that they both take care of civil and criminal cases. However, the U.S. District Courts are required to handle these two special cases which are the cases from the Court of International Trade and U.S. Court of Federal Claims. In addition, every district with Federal district courts also has one U.S. bankruptcy court. California Superior Courts, in contract, take care of "appeals of small claims cases and other civil cases worth $25,000 or less and appeals of misdemeanor cases" (Superior Court of
The US court system consists of a trial court, an appellate court, and a supreme or high court. The trial court is the first to hear the facts of a case and has original jurisdiction. The appellate court hears cases whose resolution is disputed by the losing party in the trial court. The supreme or high court hears cases whose outcome is disputed by the losing party in the appellate court. The supreme or high court chooses which cases warrant a hearing. The federal and the state court system have the same basic structure. Each consists of a trial court, an appellate court, and a supreme or high court. The Federal Court of Appeals has thirteen (13) circuits which cover most states except the District of Columbia. The federal system also has specialty courts such as the Court of Federal Claims and the United States Tax Court.
Whether a judge should be elected or appointed has been a topic for discussion since the creation of a judicial system. Depending on what side of the decision one may be on, there are some challenges that arise from each side. If a judge is elected, will he be judicious in his decision based on the law or based on his constituents? If the judge is appointed, will he be subject to the authority that appointed him, thereby slanting his decision to keep favor of the executive or legislator that appointed him? Mandatory retirement is also a question that brings about challenges. How old is too old? When does a judge become ineffective based on their age?
Where the Magistrates Court, Crown Court and the County Court are considered as inferior courts; both civil and criminal divisions of courts have little difference. The court hearing first instance of a criminal case is the Magistrates Court. However, when there is a case concerning on a more serious criminal offence, the case would be first heard in the Crown Court instead. First instance of civil cases are usually tried in the Magistrates Court and rarely in the County Court.