Court History and Purpose

Court History and Purpose Paper
Tamiko King
CJA/224
June 14, 2012
Gretchen Schlaff

Court History and Purpose Paper
The civil courts resolve disputes between private parties. Civil courts provide citizens a chance to seek damages against another person, which usually involves financial situations. Small claims court is used to settle situations that involve money in the amount of $5,000 or less than $10,000 depending on state. The reason we have the courts is to help settle disputed situations that are brought into the court system in a civilized manner. The area of family law court handles situations that deal with marriage, divorce, children’s rights, and child custody/visitation. Another is the tort, a civil wrong recognized by law to consider a lawsuit. It also leads to injuries that are not considered acceptable by societal standards. Another case that is handled through civil law is law of succession. This concludes how the property of a deceased loved one will to pass to another person. This is also considered a will, which is a legal document where the decease wants his property or money passed on to.The dual court system separates the federal from state courts. The dual federalism where the only powers of the power of the federal government are those explicitly listed which being left to the states. Ours is more of a system, of cooperative federalism, meaning some of the lines between federal and state power blurred (Siegal, 2011). The states have limited jurisdiction courts such as the traffic courts, trial courts, appellate courts, and the supreme courts. The federal level there is the trial courts, appellate courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Higher level courts control the actions and decisions of the lower courts.The earliest know example of formal legal code was the code of Hammurabi. Hammurabi’s code was also known as and assembled by the sixth Babylonian king, in 1760 B.C., the code expressed “eye for an eye” philosophy (Siegal, 2011). The...