State Court (United States) - Administration

Administration

In most, but not all states (California and 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 rule making process. In a few states, court procedures are largely dictated by state law.

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 predominantly in state practice, 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 the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure model.

Typically, state trial courts of limited jurisdiction have generally similar rules to state trial courts of general jurisdiction, but stripped of rules applicable to special cases like class actions and most pre-trial procedures (such as non-court ordered discovery).

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.

It is not uncommon for justice system functions like assisting indigent parents collect child support, and probation supervision, to be located bureaucratically in the judicial branch, rather than the executive branch. Some states give the judiciary supervisory authority over the law enforcement officers who provide court house security, enforce civil judgments and run the local jail, while reserve these functions for in executive branch governmental officials. Law enforcement officers who are in the judicial branch are typically called bailiffs or marshals. Law enforcement officers who are in the executive branch and serve a state court are often part of the office of the sheriff in the county.