Last week, I was reminded once again that lawyers seem to live in a very finite and myopic world. Our scope of perception is severely tainted by the things law school and years or training in risk aversion have taught us matter. We forget this regularly and need to be reminded that not everyone knows the things we know or cares about the things we care about.
While in my office, someone who works at my firm (a non-lawyer) came into my office, sat down and told me he was confused. He saw that our litigation matters were before several different courts, he did not understand why and he felt stupid for working in a law firm and not understanding this. I told him to relax, not understanding the court system was not the reason I thought he was stupid. I'm kidding about that last statement, in case you don't know my sense of humor by now. So, after being reminded that not everyone knows that we have a dual court system in America and what the distinctions between the two are, I explained it to my co-worker.
In this country, we have a Supreme Court of the United States. In its own words, this court has the "provine to say what the law is." It is the final word on the law in this country. From here, the system splits in two. There is a federal system of courts and a state system of courts. This is so because the Constitution and its framers wanted to ensure that each state had its own rights and system but was also protected by the national government. It was not, as my co-worker suggested, to create bureaucracy and allow for the creation of more lawyers.
The federal system is easy. Just below the Supreme Courts are the Circuit Courts of Appeal. We have twelve of them and each Circuit Court hears the appeals of District Courts from the particular states to which they are assigned. For instance, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals hears the appeals from decisions rendered in the federal trial courts sitting in Florida, Georgia and Alabama.
Just below the Circuit Courts of Appeal are the District Courts, where the lawsuits are first filed and the trials take place. It does not matter whether the matter is civil or criminal, this is where the fun begins. There are only two ways to get into federal court in a civil matter. You have to sue or be sued under a federal law (the ones that Congress enacts) or one of the parties to the suit has to live outside the state and the amount being sued for exceeds $75,000. For criminal prosecution, you must be charged with violating a federal law. In other words, you will not go to the fed pen for your speeding tickets, breaking and entering or even murder. You have to go for air piracy, wire fraud and other crimes regulated by Congress.
If you don't like your decision here, you appeal to the Circuit Court of Appeals presiding over the state in which your court sits. If you don't like that decision, the Circuit Court of Appeal thinks your case raises an issue that needs to resolve an undecided point of law or you meet a very finite list of other circumstances, you can try to have the U.S. Supreme Court hear your matter. This is a tough ticket to get. You may have heard that in the last week the U.S. Supreme Court has been turning down death sentence cases brought by inmates on death row. Tough room. We'll talk about what it takes to get before the Supreme Court another day.
The state system is a little different than federal court and is different in every state. Every state has its own supreme court (that may or may not be called the "supreme court") and a trial court. Some courts have intermediate appellate courts, just like the federal system. And, just to keep things interesting, every state calls their courts something different. In Florida, our trial courts are called circuits courts (within which there are other divisions - county, family probate, civil, criminal). We have an intermediate appellate court system and these courts are known as the District Courts of Appeal. There are five in Florida and which court you appeal to depends on which county your trial court case was in. From there, you go to the Florida Supreme Court which, like the U.S. Supreme Court, has limited grounds upon which it will hear your case. And just to bring things full circle, the state Supreme Courts can (again, under limited circumstances) seek to have the U.S. Supreme Court hear the case once they have rendered their decision.
To bring a civil case in state court, you need only to have a controversy. It can be of any amount and can involve issues of state OR federal law. In the criminal context, if you are facing a state court judge, you have been charged with violating a law of the State of Florida.
I hope you paid attention. There is a quiz on this later.
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