Deck 4: State Courts

Question 1

What is the name of courts that use therapeutic jurisprudence?

A)problem-solving courts
B)intermediate appellate courts
C)supreme courts
D)lower courts

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Which of the following is not an essential element of therapeutic jurisprudence?

A)immediate intervention
B)hands-on judicial involvement
C)treatment programs
D)adversarial adjudication

Answer 2

D

Question 3

How many layers exist in a typical court system?

A)Two
B)Three
C)four
D)five

Answer 3

C

Question 4

What type of cases do major trial courts decide?

A)misdemeanors
B)violations
C)traffic tickets
D)felonies

Question 5

Which of the following states does not have any trial courts of limited jurisdiction?

A)California
B)New York
C)Texas
D)Ohio

Question 6

Which of the following is not true of the highest state courts?

A)All of these answers are true.
B)All the judges on the court participate in rendering a decision about a particular case.
C)All state supreme courts have a limited amount of original jurisdiction.
D)Some states have more than one court of last resort.

Question 7

A person cited for a misdemeanor would most likely appear before

A)a court of limited jurisdiction.
B)a court of general jurisdiction.
C)a circuit court.
D)a court of common pleas.

Question 8

Which of the following is not a problem confronting lower courts?

A)inadequate financing
B)unbalanced caseloads
C)inadequate facilities
D)strict court procedures

Question 9

Lower courts handle what stages of felony cases?

A)the final stages
B)the intermediate stages
C)the appeal stages
D)the preliminary stages

Question 10

What is the principal objective of a unified court system?

A)centralized management
B)local control
C)reduced caseloads
D)independent judges

Question 11

Which of the following is consistent with court unification?

A)centralized jury selection
B)integration of federal and state judicial systems
C)localized budgeting
D)statewide financing

Question 12

What event following the Civil War produced fundamental changes in the structure of the American Judiciary?

A)decreases in population
B)rapid industrialization
C)lower volumes of litigation
D)decreases in urban populations

Question 13

The state court systems are most often structured in what way?

A)locally
B)centrally
C)logically
D)evenly

Question 14

What is another name for a trial court of limited jurisdiction?

A)inferior court
B)district court
C)superior court
D)circuit court

Question 15

What type of panels are typically used by intermediate courts of appeals?

A)rotating three-judge
B)rotating five-judge
C)nine-judge
D)single-judge

Question 16

Intermediate courts of appeals do which of the following?

A)These courts carefully review evidence presented at a trial.
B)These courts determine whether technical violations of the law were committed at trial and release affected defendants.
C)These courts review trial proceedings to make sure the law was followed and that the defendant received a fair trial.
D)All of these answers are correct.

Question 17

What judges typically authorize search warrants?

A)lower court judges
B)major trial court judges
C)appellate court judges
D)supreme court judges

Question 18

Litigants in state courts are most often

A)large and small businesses.
B)individuals and small businesses.
C)large businesses and governmental bodies.
D)individuals and governmental bodies.

Question 19

In states without intermediate appellate courts, state supreme courts

A)have complete discretion over the cases placed on their dockets.
B)have no power to choose which cases will be placed on their dockets.
C)hear only civil cases.
D)hear only criminal cases.

Question 20

In Ewing v.California (2002), the U.S.Supreme Court what State of California law?

A)capital punishment
B)civil commitment for sex offenders
C)legalized medical marijuana
D)three strikes

Question 21

What is a form of settling disputes, such as unruly children annoying neighbors, through less adversarial means than the traditional court system designed to deal with issues?

A)alternative dispute resolution
B)domestic court
C)drug court
D)civil court

Question 22

Which of the following occurs with the imposition of tougher laws?

A)police do not necessarily make more arrests
B)juries are reluctant to convict
C)prosecutors are pressured to plea bargain
D)all of these occur with the imposition of tougher laws

Question 23

What is the emphasis in domestic violence courts?

A)integration
B)separation
C)segregation
D)punishment

Question 24

What courts were created as a response to a significant growth in appellate cases that threatened to overwhelm the state supreme court?

A)lower courts
B)intermediate courts of appeals
C)justice of the peace courts
D)problem-solving courts

Question 25

To be eligible for drug treatment by drug courts, defendants

A)must have no prior felony convictions.
B)must have no prior misdemeanor or felony convictions.
C)may be charged with drug possession or drug sale.
D)must request drug treatment, but are not required to admit that they have a drug problem.

Question 26

The organization of courts in the United States impacts the processing of cases in which of the following ways?

A)decentralization of justice
B)appeals
C)unification
D)problem-solving

Question 27

What are courts collectively called in most rural areas?

A)lower courts
B)supreme courts
C)justice of the peace courts
D)problem-solving courts

Question 28

What kind of court system has a coherent hierarchy with authority concentrated in the state capital?

A)structured
B)systematic
C)complex
D)unified

Question 29

Which of the following statements is true about drug courts?

A)The first drug court was in New York City.
B)These courts assume that treatment will reduce the likelihood that convicted drug offenders will reoffend.
C)Judges who oversee these courts take a "hands-off" approach to offender monitoring.
D)These courts emphasize the speedy administration of punishment.

Question 30

What court system provides a safety valve for checking the most flagrant abuses of local justice?

A)dual
B)appellate
C)unified
D)problem-solving

Question 31

After the American Revolution, the functions of state courts

A)changed
B)stabilized
C)stagnated
D)was primary to international security

Question 32

Which of the following courts embody the concept of therapeutic jurisprudence?

A)drug courts
B)domestic violence courts
C)mental health courts
D)drug, domestic violence, and mental health courts

Question 33

What are the urban counterparts of the justice of the peace courts?

A)major trial
B)supreme courts
C)appellate courts
D)municipal courts

Question 34

The key components of court unification do not include

A)simplified court structure
B)decentralized administration
C)centralized rule making
D)centralized judicial budgeting

Question 35

Courts of therapeutic jurisdiction do not include which of the following?

A)drug courts
B)courts of last resort
C)domestic violence courts
D)elder court

Question 36

In states without intermediate appellate courts, state courts of last resort

A)must hear all criminal appeals.
B)have discretion to hear only the cases they decide are the most important.
C)hear only the most notorious cases.
D)None of these answers is correct.

Question 37

Misdemeanors are handled by which courts?

A)lower courts
B)supreme courts
C)justice of the peace courts
D)problem-solving courts

Question 38

Which of the following is true of the early colonial courts?

A)they were rather simple
B)they replicated English courts completely
C)they were rather complex
D)they replicated English courts in substance but not in form

Question 39

What courts are at the first level of state courts?

A)trial courts of limited jurisdiction
B)justice of the peace courts
C)municipal courts
D)problem-solving courts

Question 40

Which of the following represents a clear disadvantage of localized control of justice?

A)Local courts are closely linked to the people they serve.
B)The application of "state" law often has a local flavor.
C)The officials who staff these courts are recruited from the local community they serve and thus reflect the sentiments of that community.
D)Local control has been an incubator of corruption and injustice.

Question 41

Citizens are more likely to have contact with a trial court of limited jurisdiction than with any other type of court.

Question 42

In the colonial courts, each colony modified its court system according to what?

A)local customs
B)patterns of commercial trade
C)different religious practices
D)each colony modified its court system in all of these ways

Question 43

Some states have no trial courts of limited jurisdiction.

Question 44

One of the problems facing lower courts is inadequate financing.

Question 45

Most of the nation's judicial business takes place at what level?

A)City
B)State
C)county
D)federal

Question 46

Initial evaluations of early drug courts found favorable rates of success.

Question 47

In states without intermediate appellate courts the supreme courts has discretion regarding the cases it hears.

Question 48

The major trial courts decided felony cases.

Question 49

In domestic violence courts a single judge handles multiple criminal, family court, and divorce cases involving the same defendant.

Question 50

County courts stood at the heart of American colonial government.

Question 51

Which of the following is not one of the most common names for trial courts of general jurisdiction?

A)district court
B)superior court
C)circuit court
D)supreme court

Question 52

What kind of crimes do state courts primarily decide?

A)major drug distribution
B)terrorist crimes
C)white-collar crimes
D)street crimes

Question 53

Most criminal cases do not go to trial.

Question 54

Corrupt local officials are often prosecuted by their peers.

Question 55

A justice of the peace court provides an example of a trial court of general jurisdiction.

Question 56

There are five layers in a typical state court system.

Question 57

The organization of courts in the United States impacts case processing.

Question 58

Most of the nation's judicial business takes place at the state level.

Question 59

Therapeutic drug courts operate in all 50 states.

Question 60

Between 1997 and 2012, criminal cases filed in general jurisdiction courts (primarily felonies) increased how much?

A)25%
B)45%
C)35%
D)55%

Question 61

Local control of justice has often been an incubator of corruption and _____.

Question 62

One of the key components of court unification is diversified administration.

Question 63

Landlord-tenant disputes involving unpaid rent are likely to end up in small-_____ court.

Question 64

Some states have two courts of last resort-one for civil appeals and another for criminal appeals.

Question 65

How the courts are organized and administered has a profound effect on the way cases are processed and on the type of _____ that results.

Question 66

Supreme courts in states without intermediate courts of appeals have no power to choose which cases will be placed on their dockets.

Question 67

The court that the average citizen is most likely to come in contact with is a court of _____ jurisdiction, such as a traffic court.

Question 68

Intermediate courts of appeals must hear all properly filed appeals.

Question 69

One of the four major problems confronting the lower courts is unbalanced caseloads.

Question 70

For one to be able to appeal a decision made by a state court of last resort to the U.S.Supreme Court the case must involve an important question of _____ law.

Question 71

The major trial courts decide _____ case and civil cases including domestic relations, estate, personal injury, and contract cases.

Question 72

Trial courts of _____ jurisdiction are commonly referred to as major trial courts.

Question 73

In most states with the death penalty, if the judge imposes the death penalty, then the case is automatically appealed to the state's highest court, thus bypassing the intermediate courts of appeals.

Question 74

The principal objective of a _____ court system is a shift in judicial administration from local control to centralized management.

Question 75

The principal objective of a unified court system is to shift judicial administration from local control to centralized management.

Question 76

Empirical research has always found positive outcomes for drug courts.

Question 77

A decision made by a state's intermediate appellate court is appealed to the U.S.Supreme Court for most cases.

Question 78

A century ago, state courts systems included only a single appellate body-the state court of last resort.

Question 79

Trial courts of _____ jurisdiction are sometimes referred to as inferior courts or lower courts.

Question 80

One type of problem-solving court is the _____ violence court.