Editing State court (United States) (section)

==Administration==

In most, but not all states ([[California]] and [[New York (state)|New York]] are significant exceptions), the state supreme court or a related administrative body has the power to write the rules of procedure that govern the courts through a [[rulemaking]] process. In a minority of the states, criminal and civil procedure are largely governed by state statutes.

Most states model their general jurisdiction trial court rules closely upon the [[Federal Rules of Civil Procedure]] with modifications to address types of cases that come up only in state practice (like traffic violations), and model their professional ethics rules closely upon models drafted by the [[American Bar Association]] with minor modifications. A minority of states, however, have idiosyncratic procedural rules, often based on the [[Field Code]] in place in many states before the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were adopted.  Importantly, neither California nor New York state follow federal models.

Typically, state trial courts of limited jurisdiction have generally similar rules to state trial courts of general jurisdiction, but are stripped of rules applicable to special cases like class actions and many pretrial procedures (such as out-of-court discovery in the absence of a court order).

Most state supreme courts also have general supervisory authority over the state court system. In this capacity they are responsible, for example, for making budget requests and administrative management decisions for the court system as a whole. In most states, such administrative authority has been transferred or delegated to a state judicial council which includes members of lower courts.

===State court regulation of lawyers===

All state supreme courts are the ''[[de jure]]'' primary regulatory body for all lawyers in their state and determine who can practice law and when lawyers are sanctioned for violations of professional ethical rules, which are generally also put in place as state court rules.  (Most federal courts that sit within a particular state usually require lawyers seeking admission to their bars to first obtain admission to that particular state's bar). In all states, such powers have been delegated either to the state bar association or various committees, commissions, or offices directly responsible to the state supreme court. The result is that such subordinate entities generally have original jurisdiction over lawyer admissions and discipline, nearly all ''[[de facto]]'' lawyer regulation takes place through such entities, and the state supreme court becomes directly involved only when petitioned to ''not'' ratify the decisions made by some subordinate entity in its name.