Chapter 3
State Courts
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, students should be able to:
1. Outline the four layers of a typical state court system.
2. Describe the types of cases handled by the trial courts of limited jurisdiction.
4. List the four primary problems confronting the lower courts in the United States.
6. Explain briefly the differences between a state high court of last resort in states
with and without intermediate courts of appeals.
8. Identify how problem-solving courts using therapeutic jurisprudence handle
cases.
LESSON PLAN
Correlated to PowerPoints
I. History of State Courts
A. Just as American law borrowed heavily from English common law, the
organization of American courts also reflect their English heritage.
B. Colonial Courts
i. Early colonial courts were rather simple institutions. Their structure was
similar to English courts in form but not in substance.
ii. As towns and villages became larger, however, new courts were created
C. Early American Courts
i. After the American Revolution, the function of state courts changed
markedly. Their governing powers were drastically reduced and taken
ii. In the northern states, European immigration generated cultural and
religious tensions between new arrivals and native residents.
iii. In the South, the justice system focused on tracking down escaped slaves.
iv. Meanwhile, the nation was steadily moving west, and a unique form of
frontier justice emerged.
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D. Courts in a Modernizing Society
i. Rapid industrialization following the Civil War produced fundamental
changes in the structure of the American judiciary. Increases in
ii. The sporadic and unplanned expansion of the American court system has
resulted in an often confusing structure. Each state system is different.
Although some states have adopted a unified court structure, others still
have numerous local courts with overlapping jurisdictions.
See Assignment 1
II. Trial Courts of Limited Jurisdiction: Lower Courts
Learning Objective 1: Outline the four layers of a typical state court system.
Learning Objective 2: Describe the types of criminal cases handled by the trial
courts of limited jurisdiction.
Learning Objective 3: Discuss the similarities and differences between justice of
the peace courts and municipal courts.
Learning Objective 4: List the four primary problems confronting the lower
courts in the United States.
A. Cases in the Lower Courts
i. At the first level of state courts are trial courts of limited jurisdiction,
sometimes referred to as inferior courts, or more simply, lower courts.
ii. Lower-court judges typically authorize search warrants and handle the
early stages of felony criminal cases.
iii. The bulk of the work in the lower courts involve misdemeanors,
ordinance violations, traffic offenses, and small claims of a civil nature.
B. Justice of the Peace Courts
i. The legal system in the United States is largely county-based, and
approximately 80 percent of U.S. counties are rural.
ii. In most rural areas the lower courts are collectively called justice of the
peace (JP) courts. Many JPs were locally elected officials or mayors of
small towns who served ex officio.
iii. Critics argue that the JP system has outlived its usefulness. Judicial
reformers would like to abolish the JP system altogether. A major defect
is that JP courts are not part of the state judiciary; they are controlled
only by the local government bodies that create them and fund them.
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iv. The activities of the lower courts are not subject to appellate scrutiny.
When a defendant appeals, a trial court of general jurisdiction conducts
an entirely new trial.
v. Today, many of the JPs have been replaced with magistrates. Magistrates
are more likely to be appointed than elected, and tend to have better
training than JPs.
vi. Overall, rural courts lack resources and judicial expertise. Some
reformers would unify state courts into a three-tier system, consisting of a
vii. Obstacles to reform include the powerful influence of non-lawyer judges
and people’s belief that JPs are easily accessible. High on the judicial
C. Municipal Courts
i. The urban counterparts of the justice of the peace courts are municipal
courts. Municipal courts suffer from high caseloads.
ii. In a process some have likened to an assembly line, shortcuts are
routinely taken to keep the docket moving. Few trials are held in the
lower courts. The courtroom work group often works together to keep
cases moving quickly. Those accused, who unreasonably take up too
much of the court’s time, can expect sanctions.
D. Sentencing in the Lower Courts
i. Because few defendants contest their guilt, the lower courts are more
sentencing institutions than true trial courts. The sentencing process in
the lower courts involves elements of both routinization and
individualization.
E. Problems of the Lower Courts
i. For decades, reformers have pointed to four problem areas in lower
courts: inadequate financing, inadequate facilities, lax procedures, and
unbalanced caseloads.
F. Community Justice
i. As court activities have been consolidated and streamlined, some of the
ii. The two most commonly mentioned types of programs are alternative
dispute resolution (ADR) and community courts.
Class Discussion/Activity 1
What are the differences between state high courts that have
intermediate courts of appeals and those that do not? Why would a state
not have an intermediate court of appeals? Is there a difference in the
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likelihood of an appeal being heard?
What If Scenario
What if you were the chief justice of your state supreme court; what
types of cases would you advocate for the court to review and why?
See Assignments 2, 3, and 4
III. Trial Courts of General Jurisdiction: Major Trial Courts
Learning Objective 1: Outline the four layers of a typical state court system.
Learning Objective 5: Identify the types of civil and criminal cases filed in trial
courts of general jurisdiction.
A. At the second level of state courts are the trial courts of general jurisdiction,
usually referred to as major trial courts. The term general jurisdiction means
B. Whereas federal courts hear a high percentage of cases dealing with white-
collar crimes and major drug distribution, state courts deal primarily with
street crimes.
C. Most criminal cases do not go to trial; thus, the dominant issue in the trial
courts of general jurisdiction is not guilt or innocence, but what penalty to
apply to the guilty.
See Assignments 1 and 2
IV. Intermediate Courts of Appeals
Learning Objective 1: Outline the four layers of a typical state court system.
Learning Objective 6: Explain briefly the differences between a state high court
of last resort in states with and without intermediate courts of appeals.
A. Like their federal counterparts, state courts have experienced a significant
court. State officials in 39 states have responded by creating intermediate
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B. In general, intermediate courts of appeals engage primarily in error
correction; they review trials to make sure that the law was followed. The
overall standard is one of fairness—the defendant is entitled to a fair trial but
not a perfect one.
C. The intermediate courts of appeals represent the final stage of the process for
What If Scenario
What if you could design your own state court system? What kind of
organization would you use? Identify features that you include and those
you would not.
See Assignments 1 and 2
V. State High Courts of Last Resort
Learning Objective 1: Outline the four layers of a typical state court system.
Learning Objective 6: Explain briefly the differences between a state high court
of last resort in states with and without intermediate courts of appeals.
A. The court of last resorts is generally referred to as the state high court of last
resort. Unlike the intermediate appellate courts, these courts do not use
panels in making decisions; rather, the entire court participates in deciding
each case.
B. All state supreme courts have a limited amount of original jurisdiction in
dealing with matters such as disciplining lawyers and judges.
C. In states without an intermediate court of appeals, the supreme court has no
state high courts more apparent than in deciding death penalty cases.
D. The state high courts of last resort are the ultimate review board for matters
See Assignments 1 and 2
VI. Court Unification
Learning Objective 7: List the key components of court unification.
A. Key Components
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i. The key components of court unification include simplified court
structure, centralized administration, centralized rule making,
centralized judicial budgeting, and statewide financing.
B. Analysis
i. The assumptions and philosophy of traditional notions of court reform
have been called into question. Some arguments include limitations on
innovative reform ideas and desirable court diversity, elite bias, and a
stress on abstract ideals (law on the books) instead of realities of the
courthouse (law in action).
Class Discussion/Activity 2
In what ways would court unification benefit your state’s court system? Does
your state have any of the problems that the component of unification
address? Do any other issues exist in your state’s court system? Can you
think of any other ways that you could address these issues?
Media Tool
Read the information at the LegalMatch website:
See Assignment 5
VII. Problem-Solving Courts
Learning Objective 8: Identify how problem-solving courts using therapeutic
jurisprudence handle cases.
A. Drug Courts
i. Drug courts have emerged in response to increases in caseloads since the
mid-1980s and changes in the types of cases being brought to court.
ii. Recent studies support conclusions that drug courts have a positive
B. Domestic Violence Courts
i. Domestic violence courts emphasize integration, responding to historical
problems in the court system in which domestic violence victims and
their families had to appear in different courts before multiple judges.
ii. Most evaluations of domestic violence courts suggest that they are
successful in reducing re-offenses of domestic violence.
C. Mental Health Courts
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i. Mental health courts (MHCs) are a response to a growing awareness that
the mentally ill are overrepresented in the criminal justice system
(approx. 14.5–31 percent of prisoners).
ii. There is a large variation in the structure of MHCs, including the types of
cases handled and the eligible clinical diagnoses for participation.
iii. There are few empirical evaluations of MHCs, but they have generally
found MHCs to be effective.
Class Discussion/Activity 3
What stance has your community taken regarding drug use? How has this
impacted your local courtroom? If you have a drug court in your area, has
this reduced drug crimes? If you do not have a drug court, do you think one
would be advantageous? Why hasn’t your community implemented a drug
court?
Note: This discussion could include any of the problem-solving courts.
Media Tool
What If Scenario
If you were the head of the judicial reform commission of your state, what
would your reform recommendations be, and why?
See Assignments 6 and 7
VIII. Technology Shapes the Courtrooms of the Future
A. As technology has evolved, so has the notion of a high-technology
courtroom. Judge Herbert Dixon, of DC’s Superior Court, has been involved
in several features of the courtrooms of the future, such as evidence cameras
and laptop connections.
B. Technology is shaping the future of courts in another important way through
IX. Consequences of Court Organization
Learning Objective 9: Discuss the consequences of court organization.
A. Decentralization and Choice of Courts
i. The United States has many legal systems, with the federal courts and
separate courts in each of the 50 states and in many U.S. territories
(Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico).
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ii. Lawyers sometimes leverage this decentralization by trying to maneuver
their cases in front of courts perceived to be more favorable to their
clients.
B. Local Control and Local Corruption
i. The 50 state court systems are in actuality often structured on a local
basis. The officials who staff these courts—judges and lawyers,
ii. Local control of justice has the obvious advantage of closely linking
courts to the people they serve. But local control has also been an
incubator of corruption and injustice.
iii. The dual court system has provided a safety valve for checking the most
flagrant abuses of local justice.
C. Uneven Court Financing
i. The combination of court decentralization and local control of the
judiciary results in uneven court financing. Beyond the immediate
problems of trying to provide the same services with less funding, courts
also face long-term limitations in designing new programs to respond to
changing social problems.
ii. Citizen demands to create or expand problem solving courts like drug
court, domestic violence court, and mental health courts are stymied
because of a lack of funding.
Media Tool
See Assignment 8
KEY TERMS
alternative dispute resolution (ADR): Program that seeks to settle disputes by less
adversarial means than the tradition legal processes.
arbitration: One form of alternative dispute resolution that seeks to settle court cases
after they have been filed but before they are tried by a judge.
centralized administration: State high court of last resort, working through court
administrators, provides leadership for the state court system.
centralized judicial budgeting: State judicial administrator given authority to prepare a
single budget for the entire state judiciary and send it directly to the legislature.
centralized rule making: State high courts of last resort with the power to adopt uniform
rules to be followed by all courts in the state.
community courts: Government-sponsored programs receiving the bulk of their cases
from criminal justice agencies and improving the justice system by removing minor cases
from the court.
JP: Justice of the peace.
justice of the peace courts: Lower courts in most rural areas.
mediation: One form of alternative dispute resolution that seeks to settle court cases after
they have been filed but before they are tried by a judge.
misdemeanor: A crime punishable by a fine, imprisonment (usually in a local jail, for a
period of less than 1 year), or both.
municipal court: Lower courts in most urban areas.
ordinance: Laws passed by a local governing body such as a city council.
simplified court structure: A simple, uniform court structure for the entire state.
small claims court: Civil courts that handle disputes under a set dollar amount.
state high court of last resort: The highest court in a state judicial system.
trial court of general jurisdiction: A trial court responsible for major criminal and civil
cases.
trial court of limited jurisdiction (lower court/inferior court): A lower-level state
court, such as a justice of the peace court, whose jurisdiction is limited to minor civil
disputes or misdemeanors.
trial de novo: Hearing conducted by a trial court of general jurisdiction when a defendant
appeals the ruling of a trial court of limited jurisdiction.
LECTURE NOTES
This chapter addresses the history of the court system beginning in the early colonial
days. Focus on showing how the system began to increase based on immigration to the
United States and the affect it had on the system. Further, discuss how much the system
has changed. For example, we now have community courts and problem-solving courts.
Discuss the four levels of state courts, beginning at trial courts of limited jurisdiction
through to the Supreme Court. Ask students to identify the reasons they think a case
Discuss the problem-solving courts and how they address drugs, domestic violence, and
mental health issues. Determine what factor(s) within history, if any, added to the
increase in the number of each type of criminal. Spend a reasonable amount of time
POSSIBLE DISCUSSION POINTS FOR CLASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. In the states that have intermediate courts of appeals the high courts have discretion
regarding what cases they will hear. States might not need an intermediate court of
appeals or may not want to pay for one.
2. Court unification seeks to address the issues of inefficiency and inequity. Court
unification address these problems through centralization using the key components
of simplified court structure, centralized administration, centralized rule making,
3. The location may impact the need for a drug court. More rural areas with smaller
populations may not have the funding or the drug-using population to justify a drug
ASSIGNMENTS
2. Create an outline describing the four layers of a typical state court system. In your
3. Create a PowerPoint presentation comparing and contrasting the justice of the peace
4. “Alternative Dispute Resolution”
5. “Court Unification”
6. Visit your local county courthouse, and observe a traditional court session and
problem-solving court session. Write a paper identifying the therapeutic justice
components and how they compare to a traditional court session. Include in your
paper how observing the problem-solving court has impacted your opinion of the
concept.
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7. “Drug Courts”