small claims court
small amounts of money
Trial Courts
- What cases do they hear?
Special Courts
- What cases do they hear?
Appellate Courts
Intermediate appellate courts Supreme Court of that state
Consuls
* Congress granted the US District Courts concurrent jurisdiction
in cases concerning ambassadors by 28 USC § 1251
State Courts
Inferior Courts
- Municipal courts - Traffic court
28 USC § 1257 eliminated appeal as a matter of right where highest state court found federal statute or federal treaty invalid. Also applied where state statute was found to be valid in face of federal law
Prejudicial error
tending to injure or impair
Summary Judgment
A court will order summary judgment in a civil case if there is no genuine issue of fact and, based on the undisputed facts, the moving party is entitled to summary judgment as a Matter of Law Why? If a case does not involve any questions of fact, the only issues are questions of law, so the factfinding process of a trial is not needed.