The Second tier would be District, superior, or circuit courts. These courts (courts of "general jurisdiction") are distributed geographically throughout the state for convenience and usually involve more serious civil and criminal claims such as felony prosecutions and major civil trials. Last but not least are the Appellate courts. These courts, known as the "courts of last resort," do not re-try cases, but rather review the record of the proceedings from earlier trials to determine whether or not the lower court made an error with its decision. State supreme appellate courts typically consist of five to nine members who rule as a panel.
Criminal misdemeanors punishable by fine only (no confinement), and Magistrate functions. County level Courts which divide into Statutory County Courts , Statutory Probate Courts, Constitutional county courts. All of these are County trial courts of limited jurisdiction. The Statutory Probate Court is limited primarily to probate matters. The Statutory County Courts deals with all civil, criminal, original and appellate actions prescribed by law for constitutional county courts.
95%of criminal offences are tried and dealt with in magistrates’ court. It also has the criminal jurisdiction to issue search and arrest warrants, decide on bail applications and sending trials to crown court where they will be tried before a judge and jury. The magistrates’ court has limited powers in passing judgement, which is a maximum of £5000 in fines, six months in prison or twelve months for concurrent offences. The magistrates are not legally qualified but are trained and made up of three people. They are not paid except for expenses but in some towns the magistrates’ court can be conducted by a full time, paid, legally qualified magistrate called district judge.
Upon request, the Court also handles provides advisory opinions to the Governor and legislature on various legal issues. The Appeals Court is the Court of general appellate jurisdiction, and it handles most appeals of the several Trial Court departments, however some appeals are transferred to the Supreme Judicial Court. The Court has jurisdiction over final decisions of three state agencies: the Appellate Tax Board, the Department of Industrial Accidents, and the Commonwealth. There are twenty-five statutory justices in the Appeals Court. Finally, there are the several departments of the Massachusetts Trial Courts, and their jurisdiction is as follows: 1.)
That is; whenever it proves some material fact in issue, appears to be competent, assists the trier of fact in understanding the cases, corroboration of evidence of oral testimony in both civil and criminal cases, disproves the testimony of a witness, and when is assists a witness in illustrating or explaining their testimony (Nemeth, 2011). How did courts decide photographs were admissible? There were many court cases that has helped along the way to help this matter such as the cases of United States vs. Clayton and Connecticut Vs. Swinton. Photographic evidence has been in use in the criminal justice system for over a hundred years. Photographing the crime scene helps when showing the scene as is.
Magistrate’s courts make up 95% of the criminal justice system. However they may here civil matters such as family issues, liquor licensing and also betting and gaming licensing. The lay magistrates can hear any appeals for bail or remand. Bail where the defendant is trying to stay out of prison until the next hearing and remand where the prosecution is trying to keep the defendant in prison until the next hearing. Magistrates have a clerk sit in the cases and hearings with them.
In both cases when the defendant pleads guilty or in case is found guilty, the trial court imposes sentence. Trial courts of limited or special jurisdiction are called lower courts. Lower courts hear only less serious criminal cases specials types cases( Traffic violations, small claims or family problems), Schmalleger (2011). Courts of
A jury can be defined as a group of people (usually 12 in number) who have been selected to consider the issues of fact in a trail in a Court of Law, in order to make a finding as to an individual’s guilt or lack thereof to a standard which is either “beyond reasonable doubt” or “on the balance of probabilities”. In criminal cases, the jury system exists to decide if the defendant is guilty or not. In civil cases, they aim to decide if the claimant has proved their case and the amount of compensation to be awarded. It should be noted that in the United Kingdom a Judge usually presides over civil trials except where a jury is deemed necessary. BRIEF HISTORY OF THE JURY SYSTEM The system is believed to date as far back as Norman times and is thought to have been used as a means of gathering information for the king.
Judges also deal with the issue of bail once established that there is enough evidence to hold a criminal trial against the defendant during the preliminary hearing. Judges decide on whether to grant bail, and if so at what amount and on what conditions. If any of the conditions are broken by the defendant, the judge can also revoke bail and issue a warrant for his or her arrest. Once the criminal or civil trial has begun, the judge presides over the courtroom (Meyer & Grant, 2003). When the jury reaches a verdict of guilty, the judge is responsible for following established legal guidelines during sentencing.
Indictable offences are the more serious crimes such as murder, armed robbery, sexual assault, drug trafficking and arson. These offences are tried by a judge and jury in District or Supreme Courts. A preliminary (committal) hearing is held in Local Court before a magistrate to determine whether there is sufficient evidence for a ‘prima facie’ case. The prosecution is required to produce evidence and witnesses. The process of criminal prosecution begins when a person (usually a police officer) lays information before a court or a justice of the peace.