What does circuit court do

All Rights Reserved. Search the site. Mass Litigation Panel. Responsibility for jury selection for the Circuit Criminal Courts rests with the County Registrar in each of the twenty-six counties. The Circuit Court consists of the President, thirty seven ordinary judges and six specialist judges.

The President of the District Court is, by virtue of their office, an additional judge of the Circuit Court. The country is divided into eight circuits with one judge assigned to each circuit except in Dublin where ten judges may be assigned, and Cork, where there is provision for three judges.

Decisions of the District Court can be appealed to the Circuit Court with some exceptions. Appeals proceed by way of a full rehearing and the decision of the Circuit Court is final. For more information on the procedures of the court and initiating a case, click here for civil cases and here for criminal cases. Only law trained full—time magistrates may perform the duties of the circuit court judges. Lay magistrates are primarily located in remote areas of our sparsely populated state. Circuit court judges may perform judicial duties for the district courts at the request of district court judges, and many do assist regularly on routine district court matters throughout the State.

Circuit court judges handle thousands of traffic, criminal, small claims and civil cases every year. They might hear traffic cases in the morning and felony preliminary hearings in the afternoon. Four territories of the United States have U. There are also two special trial courts.

The Court of International Trade addresses cases involving international trade and customs laws. The U. Court of Federal Claims deals with most claims for money damages against the U. Federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction over bankruptcy cases involving personal, business, or farm bankruptcy. This means a bankruptcy case cannot be filed in state court.

Through the bankruptcy process, individuals or businesses that can no longer pay their creditors may either seek a court-supervised liquidation of their assets, or they may reorganize their financial affairs and work out a plan to pay their debts. Congress created several Article I, or legislative courts, that do not have full judicial power.

Judicial power is the authority to be the final decider in all questions of Constitutional law, all questions of federal law and to hear claims at the core of habeas corpus issues. Article I Courts are:. Main content Court Role and Structure Federal courts hear cases involving the constitutionality of a law, cases involving the laws and treaties of the U.