Regional Laws and Courts
While the majority of trials in the United States are governed by state laws there are cases that deal with issues of federal law. Those cases are held in one of the federal courts in the country. The federal court system of the United States is broken up based on regions of the country. There are 94 district courts. The districts are … Keep Reading → determined by congress. Each state has at least one District Court. Each state also has one Bankruptcy Court. If a decision of a District Court is to be appealed it is sent to one of the 13 Appeals Courts in the country. The Appeals Courts do not try the case again; their only job is to determine if the lower court made a mistake in applying the law. If the defendant loses in the Appeals Court the final step is to appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. Unless the case is particularly important or the lower courts have crucial disagreements, the Supreme Court is unlikely to hear the case.
