1. Ch. 18 The Federal Court System Section 2: Inferior Courts

2. Section 2---Inferior Courts Have you ever heard of one player who is called the “workhorse” of the team? What does this mean? We are going to talk about the “workhorse” of the federal courts—the inferior courts.

3. District Courts There are 94 district courts. These are the federal trial courts—with 632 judges that handle around 300,000 cases a year. 80% of the entire federal caseload.

4. District Courts The district courts hear a wide range of criminal and civil cases. A. Criminal cases---a federal law was broken---ex: bank robbery and mail fraud B. Civil cases---non-criminal matter---ex: contract dispute, bankruptcy

5. Court of Appeals They were created In 1891 to relieve the Supreme Court of the burden of hearing appeals from the district courts. (There were so many that the Supreme Court was 3 years behind.) There are 12 judicial circuits, including the District of Columbia.

6. Altogether 179 circuit judges sit in the court of Appeals. A justice of the Supreme Court is also assigned to each district. Ex: 11th circuit---covers AL, GA, FL---12 judges—they hold sessions in a number of cities within the circuit. In each case you normally have a panel of 3 judges who hear each case.

7. Court of Appeals Only hear cases on appeal from the lower federal courts, most appeals come from the district courts within their circuits. Handle more than 55,000 cases a year and their decisions are final, unless the Supreme Court decides to hear a case.