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[Music] the United States has a system of both federal and state courts the federal courts are organized in a three-tier system composing of district or trial courts circuit or appellate courts and the Supreme Court which is both a trial and appellate court the vast majority of federal cases begin in district courts there is at least one district court in each of the states and one each in the District of Columbia Puerto Rico Guam the US Virgin Islands in the Northern Mariana Islands it is in these 94 district courts that most federal criminal and civil cases are tried district courts include both judges and juries and also include the specialized Court of international trade and the Court of Federal Claims the next level up in the federal court system is the u.s. circuit courts which are appellate courts or Court of Appeals and appellate court is a federal or state court that hears challenges to decisions made by a lower court in rules on whether that court applied the law fairly to reach those decisions for the purposes of the appellate courts the 94 district courts are divided among 12 circuits or Regents each of these 12 circuits has a Court of Appeals there is a thirteenth federal appellate court the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit which hears specific cases from across the country including appeals on cases involving patent law and decisions decided by the court of international trade and the Court of Federal Claims in each case before a circuit court the appeal is heard by a panel of three judges and no jury is involved the third and highest level of the federal court system is the US Supreme Court the Supreme Court mainly hears cases on appeal from the lower courts although it does have original jurisdiction in cases involving ambassadors and public officials as well in cases in which two states are in conflict the nine justices choose which appeals to hear using what is referred to as the rule of four if four of the nine justices wish to hear the case it becomes part of their calendar or caseload the decision by the Supreme Court on a federal constitutional issue is considered the final word on that issue state courts for their part near cases involving state law and state constitutions like the federal courts the state courts are also organized in a bottom-up structure state courts focus on state laws which tend to be much more specific and deal with more granular areas such as real estate transactions and many types of criminal behavior state appellate and Supreme Court's play a similar role as their federal counterparts but base their decisions on state constitutions and laws some cases involve what is called concurrent jurisdiction in which both a state and a federal court have the authority to hear and decide a case for example an individual from one state suing an individual from another state might sue in the state court of the defendant or in federal court with such a case the plaintiff can choose in which court to have the case heard however the defendant may disagree and try to remove the case to the other court [Music] you you