Chapter 16 The Federal Court

Criminal law case: The govt. charges an individual with violating specific laws, such as those prohibiting robbery.
-The offense can be harmful to an individual or to society as a whole. In either case it warrants punishment, such as imprisonment or a fine.
Civil law case: involves a dispute between two parties (one whom may be government itself) and defines relationships between them.
-Range from divorces proceeding, alliances w/ multinational companies and violations of civil right laws.
-Consist of both statutes (laws passed by legislatures) and common law (accumulation of judicial decisions).
-The majority of all criminal & civil cases involve state law and are tried in state courts. Criminal cases such as burglary & civil cases such as divorce normally begin and end in the state, not the federal courts.

- Every case is a dispute between a plaintiff (accusser) and a defendant (acussed) in which the former brings some charge against the latter.
-The plaintiff is sometimes the govt., which may bring a charge agaisnt an individual or a corporation. They can charge someone for a murder & a company w/ illegal trade practices.
-Cases are identified w/ the name of the plaintiff first & the defendant second. Ex. State v. Smith or Anderson v. Baker.
-In many cases the jury, group of citizens, is responsible for determining the outcome of a lawsuit(but not all the time).
-Litigants (ppl being accussed) end up in court for diff. reasons some are reluctant participants- the defendant in a criminal case, for ex. Others are eager for their day in court.

The requirement that plaintiffs have a serious interest in a case, which depends on whether they have sustained or are likely to sustain a direct and substantial injury from a party or an action of government. Congress & the SC have liberalized the rules for standing, making it somewhat easier for citizens to challenge governmental & corporate actions in court.

A case brought into court by a person on behalf of not only himself but all of the other persons who are in similar circumstances.
-Can benefits those looking to end civil right & pollution. Due to an explosion following these cases, 1973 the SC began making it more difficult to file class action suits.

A requirement that to be heard a case must be capable of being settled as a matter of law rather than on other grounds as is commonly the case in legislative bodies.

-Interest groups know the courts' ability to shape policy, they often seek litigants whoses cases seem particularly strong. NAACP chose the Brown v. Board of Education to end segregation in schools but the courts could not resolve the case simply by insisting that expenditures for schools for White & African American children be equalized.
-The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) also is always seeking for case that can help their interest.

Legal briefs submitted by a "friend of the court" for the purpose of raising additional points of view and presenting information not contained in the briefs of the formal parties. These briefs attempt to influence a court's decision.

-Lawyers translate policies into legal language & then enforce or challenge them.
-The Legal Services Corporation employs lawyers to serve the legal needs of the poor.
-Equaility of access does not mean equality of representation.
-It audience for the judicial drama is interest groups the press, and the public.

-The Constitution says that their will be a SC and left it to Congress's discretion to establish lower federal courts of general jurisdiction.
-The Judiciary Act of 1789, Congress created these constitutional courts.

-Congress has also established legislative courts for specialized purposes. These courts include the court of military appeals, the court of claims, the court of international trade, and the tax court.
-Legislative courts are staffed by judges who have fixed terms of office & who lack the protection against removal or salary reductions that judges on constitutional courts enjoy. -They apply the body of law within their area jurisdiction but cannot excercise the power of judicial review.

The jurisdiction of courts that hear a case first, usually in a trial. These are the courts that determine the facts about a case, whether it is a criminal charge or civil suit.
-90% of courts begin & end in the court of original jurisdiction.

The jurisdiction of courts that hear cases brought to them on appeal from lower courts, These courts do not review the factual record, only the legal issues involved.
-At state level, appellate process normally ends w/ the state's highest court of appeal, which is called the state supreme court. Appeal from a state high court can be taken only to the U.S. SC.

The 91 federal courts of original jurisdiction. They are the only federal courts in which trials are held and in which juries may be impaneled.-At least one is located in each state, in addition to Washington D.C., and one in Puerto Rico (there are also three somewhat territorial courts for Guam, the Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands).
-They are of original jurisdiction; they hear no appeal.
-They are the only federal courts that hold trials and impanel (list, pick out) juries.
-The 680 district court judges usually preside over cases alone, but certain rare cases require that 3 judges constitute the court.
-Each district court has between 2 & 28 judges, depending on the amount if judicial work within its territory.

-Federal crimes-Civil suits under federal law -Civil suits between citizens of different states where the amount in questions exceeds $75,000.-Supervision of bankruptcy proceedings-Review of actions of some federal administrative agencies-Admiralty and maritime law cases-Supervision of the naturalization of aliens
*98% of all criminal cases in the US are heard in state & local court systems, not in the federal courts.
-Only a small percentage of the persons convicted of federal crimes in the federal district courts actually have a trial. Most enter guilty pleas as part of a bargain receive lighter punishment.
-State & local courts handle the vast majority of civil suits in the US.
-Only 2% out of maybe 250,000 civil cases are resolved in court each yr.

Involve civil suits between citizens of different states (such as a citizen of Cali. suing a citizen of Texas) or suits in which one of the parties is a citizen of a foreign nation and the matter in question exceeds $75,000.
-Congress established this jurisdiction to protect against the possible bias of a state court in favor of a citizen from that state. Judges must apply the appropriate state laws in these cases.