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The State of Oklahoma Court Systems

In: Business and Management

Submitted By lchastain84
Words 578
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In the state of Oklahoma there are several court systems. Each court has a designated portion of cases that they oversee and can either be ruled by a judge or determined by a jury trial. At the top you have two court systems, the Supreme Court in which 9 judges reside over and the Court of Criminal Appeals in which 5 judges reside. These court systems are called, “Courts of Last Resort (Oklahoma Department of Libraries, n.d.). The Supreme Court assigns cases to the Civil Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court handles a variety of cases which include, appeal by right civil, permission and exclusive original proceeding cases (Courts, 2010). The Supreme Court is also responsible for administration of the entire state’s judicial system. The Court of Criminal Appeals handles exclusive appeal by right and permission for criminal and juvenile. This court also handles exclusive death penalty cases and original proceeding application for writ. Then in the Intermediate Appellate Court, reporting to the Supreme Court you have the Court of Civil Appeals which has four divisions and twelve judges residing in three judge panels (Courts, 2010). The Court of Civil Appeals are split with two in Oklahoma City and two in Tulsa. This court system is responsible for a large portion of the appellate decisions which are passed through the Courts of Last Resort for publication (Oklahoma Department of Libraries, n.d.). Next is the Courts of General Jurisdiction, which are the 77 Oklahoma District Courts. The 77 courts are broken up into 26 districts. Within the District Courts System there are 75 district judges, 77 associate district judges and 89 special judges. The District Court Systems do handle jury trials and have jurisdiction over civil (except administrative agency appeals), and small claims up to $6,000.00 (Courts, 2010). They also have claim over domestic relations

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