Court - Trial and Appellate Courts

Trial and Appellate Courts

Trial courts are courts that hold trials. Sometimes termed "courts of first instance," trial courts have varying original jurisdiction. Trial courts may conduct trials with juries as the finders of fact (these are known as jury trials) or trials in which judges act as both finders of fact and finders of law (in some jurisdictions these are known as bench trials). Juries are less common in court systems outside the Anglo-American common law tradition.

Appellate courts are courts that hear appeals of lower courts and trial courts.

Some courts, such as the Crown Court in England and Wales may have both trial and appellate jurisdictions.