What Kinds of Cases Are Tried in State Courts?

State courts are essential to the administration of justice in the United States because they handle by far the largest number of cases and have the most contact with the public. If you’re ever involved in a court proceeding, it is more likely to be in a state court than in a federal court. State courts handle the cases that the public is most likely to be involved in, such as robberies, assaults, and traffic violations.

The state courts have such a heavy caseload because their general, unlimited jurisdiction allows them to decide almost every type of case. Jurisdiction refers to the kinds of cases a court is authorized to hear. In recent years, the annual number of state court cases has been over 27 million, not including traffic and parking violations.

By contrast, in the same period, only about one million cases have been brought each year in the federal courts; half of these were bankruptcy filings, and one-tenth were minor criminal cases. The number of judges in each system further illustrates the difference: There are fewer than 1,500 judges and magistrates in the federal courts, but almost 30,000 in the state courts.

What Kinds of Cases Are Tried in Federal Courts?

As the preceding numbers suggest, federal courts do not have the same broad jurisdiction that state courts have. Federal court jurisdiction is limited to certain kinds of cases listed in the Constitution. For the most part, federal courts only hear cases in which the United States is a party, cases involving violations of the Constitution or federal laws, cases involving foreign diplomats, and some special kinds of cases, such as bankruptcy cases and cases concerning incidents at sea. In addition, federal courts hear cases based on state laws that involve parties from different states.

Some cases are such that only federal courts have jurisdiction over them. In other cases, the parties can choose whether to go to state or to federal court. Most of the time, however, they can only go to state court.

Most cases in federal courts are civil rather than criminal. As you probably know, Congress has passed laws imposing on employers a legal duty not to deny jobs to applicants because of their race, sex, or other characteristics irrelevant to job performance. One type of federal civil case might involve a claim by a private citizen that a company failed to carry out this duty under the law – that the company refused to hire the citizen simply because she was a woman. Another kind of federal civil case might be a lawsuit by a private citizen claiming that he's entitled to receive money under a government program, such as benefits from Social Security. A third type of federal civil lawsuit might require the court to decide whether a corporation is violating federal laws by having a monopoly over a certain kind of business.

Appeals for review of federal administrative agency actions are also federal civil cases. Suppose, for example, that the Environmental Protection Agency issued a permit to a paper mill to discharge water used in milling process into the Scenic River, over the objection of area residents. The citizens could ask a federal court to review the agency's decision. Almost always, however, administrative agency action are reviewed directly by the courts of appeals, not by the district courts.

The reason why there are so many more federal civil cases than criminal cases is because most crimes concern problems that the Constitution leaves to the states to solve. We all know, for example, that robbery is a crime. But what law says it is a crime? By and large, state laws, not federal laws, make robbery a crime. There are only a few federal laws about robbery, such as the law that makes it a federal crime to rob a bank whose deposits are insured by a federal agency. Other federal crimes are illegal importation of drugs into the country and use of the US mails to swindle consumers.

Federal courts also hear bankruptcy cases and have special bankruptcy judges to hear these cases. The judges develop and oversee plans for people who are deeply in debt to distribute whatever money they have to their creditors. Even if the bills aren’t paid in full, under the federal bankruptcy laws the debts will be considered discharged, and the debtors will be entitled to a “fresh start” in life.

Although federal courts hear significantly fewer cases than the state courts, the cases they do hear tend more often to be of national importance, because of the federal laws they enforce and the federal rights they protect.