Federal Courts and What They Do

Contents

What Is a Court?..............................................................................................................................2

What Is a Federal Court?.................................................................................................................2

What Kinds of Federal Courts Are There?......................................................................................3

Who Sets Up the Federal Court System?........................................................................................3

What’s the Difference Between Civil Cases and Criminal Cases?.................................................3

What Kinds of Cases Are Tried in State Courts?............................................................................4

What Kinds of Cases Are Tried in Federal Courts?........................................................................4

How Does a Case Come into a Federal Court?...............................................................................5

Civil cases..............................................................................................................................6

Criminal cases........................................................................................................................6

Is There a Trial for Every Case?......................................................................................................6

What Is the Purpose of the Trial?....................................................................................................7

Role of judge and jury............................................................................................................7

Adversary process..................................................................................................................7

Standards of proof..................................................................................................................7

May I Watch a Trial in Progress?.....................................................................................................8

Who Are the People in the Courtroom?...........................................................................................8

The judge................................................................................................................................8

The jury.................................................................................................................................10

The lawyers..........................................................................................................................10

The parties............................................................................................................................10

The witnesses........................................................................................................................11

The courtroom deputy or clerk.............................................................................................11

The court reporter.................................................................................................................11

What Happens During a Trial?......................................................................................................11

Pretrial activity in civil cases................................................................................................11

Pretrial activity in criminal cases.........................................................................................11

Jury selection........................................................................................................................12

Opening statements..............................................................................................................12

Direct and cross-examination..............................................................................................12