Business Law Ch 2: Courts and Jurisdiction

Business Law: CH2 Courts and Jurisdiction: Supreme Court of the United States, Washington DC: • The highest court in the land, located in Washington DC • Decides the mostimprotant constitutional law cases and issues for review and decisions • Its unanimous and majority decisions are precedents for all other courts in the country Major courtsystemsin the United States Each of these systems have jurisdiction to hear differenttypes of lawsuits State Court Systems State courts resolve more than 95 percent of the lawsuits brought in this country the other 5% is decided by federal courts Include: • Limited-Jurisdiction trial Courts, general jurisdiction trial courts, and higheststate court Limited-jurisdiction- inferior trial courts • Hear matters ofspecialized orlimited nature o Traffic courts, juvenile courts, justice-of-the-peace, probate,familiy law, courtsthat hear misdemeanor criminal law cases • Because they are trial courts:Evidence can be introduced and testimony can be given • They keep records of their percedings • The Decision can be appealed to a general jurisdiction court or an appellate court Small claims courts: • Hear civil cases involving small dollar amounts $5,000 or less • Parties must appear individually and cannot have lawyers represent them • The Decision: are appealable to general-jurisdiction trial courts or appellate court General-jurisdiction trial courtssuperior court- court of record • The tesitmony and evidence at trial are recorded and stored for future reference • Hear cases that are not within the jurisdiction of limited-jurisdiction trial courts like felonies, civil cases involving a certain amount Some states divide their general jurisdiction courtsinto two division: 1. Criminal cases 2. Civil cases Decisions are appealable to an intermediate appellate court or the state supreme court Highest level court in accounting