ABA Family Legal Guide

How the Legal System Works

The Structure of the Court System

State and Federal Courts

How is the court system structured?

The courts of this country are organized as hierarchies. Higher courts have the power to review the decisions of lower courts. Basically, the courts of this country are divided into three layers:

• trial courts, where cases start;
• intermediate (appellate) courts, where most appeals are first heard; and
• courts of last resort (usually called supreme courts), which hear further appeals and have final authority in the cases they hear.

This division is generally true of both state courts and federal courts, although eleven states do not have an intermediate appellate court, and some states have more than one level of intermediate appellate review. Two states, Oklahoma and Texas , have separate courts of last resort for civil and criminal cases.