Editing State court (United States) (section)

===Civil cases===

The vast majority of non-criminal cases in the United States are handled in state courts, rather than federal courts.  For example, in Colorado, roughly 97% of all civil cases were filed in state courts and 89% of the civil cases filed in federal court were bankruptcies in 2002, a typical year. Just 0.3% of the non-bankruptcy civil cases in the state were filed in federal court.

A large share of all civil cases filed in state courts are debt collection cases. For example, in Colorado in 2002, about 87% of all civil cases filed in the courts of inferior jurisdiction were debt collection and eviction cases, while in the court of general jurisdiction, about 60% of all civil cases (other than domestic relations and probate cases) were debt collection, foreclosure, and tax collection cases. A large share of the balance of civil cases in courts of limited jurisdiction involve temporary restraining orders, typically in non-marital domestic relations contexts, and name change petitions (generally for child custody reasons or related to taking an American alternative to a non-U.S. name, marriage and divorce related name changes are normally handled elsewhere).  A large share of the balance of civil cases in courts of general jurisdiction involve divorces, child custody disputes, child abuse cases, uncontested probate administrations, and personal injury cases that do not involve workplace injuries (which are usually handled through a non-judicial [[workers' compensation]] process).

Many state court civil cases produce quick default judgments or pretrial settlements, but even considering only cases that actually go to trial, state courts are the dominant forum for civil cases. In Colorado, in 2002, there were 79 civil trials in federal court (41 jury and 38 non-jury), and 5950 civil trials in state court (300 jury and 5650 non-jury).<ref name="state.co.us">{{cite web|url=http://www.courts.state.co.us/panda/statrep/ar2002/ar2002toc.htm |title=Colorado State Judicial Branch - |access-date=2006-04-28 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060501140827/http://www.courts.state.co.us/panda/statrep/ar2002/ar2002toc.htm |archive-date=2006-05-01 }}</ref><ref name="uscourts.gov">{{cite web|url=http://www.uscourts.gov/caseload2002/contents.html |title=Federal Judicial Caseload Statistics |access-date=2006-04-28 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060418040800/https://www.uscourts.gov/caseload2002/contents.html |archive-date=2006-04-18 }}</ref>  Essentially all probate and divorce cases are also brought in state court, even if the parties involved live in different states.  In practice, almost all real property evictions and foreclosures are handled in state court.

State courts systems always contain some courts of "general jurisdiction". All disputes which are capable of being brought in courts, arising under either state or federal law may be brought in one of the state courts, except in a few narrow case where federal law specifically limits jurisdiction exclusively to the federal courts.  Some of the most notable cases exclusively in federal jurisdiction are suits between state governments, suits involving [[ambassador]]s, certain [[intellectual property]] cases, federal criminal cases, [[bankruptcy]] cases, large interstate [[class action]] cases, and most [[securities fraud]] class actions.  There are also a handful of federal laws under which lawsuits can be pursued only in state court, such as those arising under the federal "junk fax" law.<ref>See Telephone Consumer Protection Act (Act), 47 U.S.C.S. § 227 (the "junk fax" law); ''Consumer Crusade, Inc. v. Affordable Health Care Solutions, Inc.'', 121 P.3d 350 (Colo. App. 2005)</ref>  There have been times in U.S. history where almost all small claims, even if they arose under federal law, were required to be brought in state courts.

State court systems usually have expedited procedures for civil disputes involving small dollar amounts (typically under $5,000 to $25,000 depending upon the state court in question), most of which involve collection of small contractual debts (such as unpaid credit cards) and landlord-tenant matters.  Many states have small claims divisions where all parties proceed in civil cases without lawyers, often before a magistrate or justice of the peace. Federal courts do not have parallel small claims procedures and apply the same civil rules to all civil cases, which makes federal court an expensive venue for a private party to pursue a claim for a small dollar amount.

Unlike state courts, federal courts are courts of "limited jurisdiction", that can only hear the types of cases specified in the Constitution and federal statutes (primarily federal crimes, cases arising under federal law, cases with a United States government party, and cases involving a diversity of citizenship between the parties).

Often, a plaintiff can bring a matter either to state court or to federal court, because it arises under federal law, or involves a substantial monetary dispute (in excess of $75,000 as of October 26, 2007) arising under state law between parties that do not reside in the same state.  If a plaintiff files suit in state court in such a case, the defendant can [[Removal jurisdiction|remove the case to federal court]].

There is no federal constitutional right to a trial by jury in a state civil case under the [[Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution]], and not all states preserve a right to a civil jury in either their state constitution or state statutes. In practice, however, civil jury trials are available, generally on a similar basis to their availability in federal court, in every state except [[Louisiana]]. In these states, there is a general right to a jury trial in cases that would arise at law in colonial England, which generally includes most cases seeking simple money damages and no other relief.  In practice, about three-quarters of all civil jury trials involved personal injury cases, and most of the rest involve breaches of contracts. In states where a state constitution provides for a right to a jury trial, or a right to open courts, this has sometimes been interpreted to confer not only a procedural right to a certain type of trial, but also a substantive right to have redress through the courts for the kinds of injuries that were compensable at common law.

Prior to trial, most proceedings in non-criminal courts are conducted via papers filed in the court, often through lawyers. In limited jurisdiction courts, it is not uncommon for an initial appearance to be made in person at which a settlement is often reached. In general jurisdiction state courts, it is not uncommon for all pre-trial matters to be conducted outside the court, with attorneys negotiating scheduling matters, pre-trial examinations of witnesses taking place in lawyer's office through [[Deposition (law)|depositions]], and a settlement conference conducted by a private mediator at the mediator's office.