Читать книгу Intellectual Property Law for Engineers, Scientists, and Entrepreneurs - Howard B. Rockman - Страница 44

The 50 state court systems in the United States are far from uniform throughout the country. The systems as well as the names of the courts differ. Also, the law applied in similar‐fact situations may also vary among the states.

Each state has a final court of appeal, normally the supreme court or the court of appeals of that particular state. The highest court practically always confines its work to appeals of cases tried in lower courts. In several states, to ease the workload of the higher court, courts of intermediate appellate jurisdiction are interposed between the higher courts and the lower trial courts.

Below the appellate courts in a state system are the trial courts in a general jurisdiction known either as circuit courts, courts of common pleas, county courts, superior courts, or, as stated previously in New York, the supreme court. Other courts such as probate courts or surrogate courts handle cases involving wills, trusts, and estates. Such courts are usually limited in geographical jurisdiction to a particular county, district, or other major political subdivision of the state.

At the lower end of the chain involving state courts are various municipal courts, police courts, justices of the peace, small claims courts, juvenile courts, and recorders courts who handle cases of very limited jurisdiction.