Courts with general jurisdiction can hear a variety of cases, while those with limited jurisdiction can only hear specific cases. Most countries have courts with general or limited jurisdiction, and the US has both federal and state courts. State courts have the overall authority to rule on a wide variety of legal matters.
General jurisdiction means that a court has the authority to hear a variety of different cases. A court with general jurisdiction is separate and distinct from a court with limited jurisdiction, such as a small claims court. The vast majority of cases in most countries are brought in courts of general jurisdiction.
In traditional English judicial systems, there were two courts: a court of equity and a court of common law. When the United States established its legal system based on English principles, this distinction essentially collapsed. The same collapse has occurred in England and the UK, like most countries in the world, no longer organizes its judicial system into separate branches of common law and court of equity.
Instead, courts in most countries today are organized as courts with limited jurisdiction or with general jurisdiction. In the United States, for example, there are a select few courts that are courts of limited jurisdiction. The bankruptcy court, for example, is a court of limited jurisdiction since it can hear only bankruptcy cases; similarly, family law courts can only hear family law cases and small claims courts can only hear cases involving damages up to a certain monetary amount.
Courts that have no limitations on the types of cases they can hear are said to have general jurisdiction. This means that a court of general jurisdiction can hear a tort case, a contract law case, or any number of other related cases. The court is not limited, as long as it has personal jurisdiction over the parties. Personal jurisdiction means that it is fair for the court to impose its rule on persons deferred to it.
In the United States, federal courts are more limited than state courts. This means that most federal courts are not courts of general jurisdiction. Federal courts may hear cases arising under federal law, such as the Constitution or federal statutes, or cases where diversity jurisdiction exists, such as cases where the people having a dispute are from different states and where the dispute exceeds a certain amount of money.
State courts, on the other hand, can try a number of different cases. Unless the federal courts or another court has exclusive jurisdiction, such as in bankruptcy and taxes, the state court may hear the case. Most litigation in the United States therefore takes place in these state courts as they have the overall authority to rule on a wide variety of different legal matters.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
