The Appellate Courts Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Appellate Courts - Research Paper Example The legal system of most countries has various levels and as a result, if one of the participants in a case feels discontented/feels that a lower-level court has not judged his or her case fairly; he/she may decide to file a formal appeal, requesting that the case be reviewed in an appellate court. In the event that the appellate court discovers that the lower court erred or used the incorrect legal procedure, for instance, it may decide to overturn the original verdict. History.com documents that the United States’ Supreme Court is a famous example of an appellate court. It is considered as a court of last resort or final appeal – once it hands down a decision, there does not exist a higher court of appeals. The appellate court system guarantees that individuals who desire to make an appeal can do so. A lawyer/team of lawyers has the responsibility of filing an appeal, and experience with the process of appeal is very useful, seeing that it can aid in the achievement o f the desired result. History of the US Appellate Courts The United States’ Court of Appeals had been created by an act of Congress (1891) to ease the Supreme Court of a good deal of its growing appellate duties in addition to remedying dearth in the cumbersome Circuit Court System, which was ultimately eliminated in the year 1911. The nine appellate courts were not to exercise original jurisdiction or to be trial courts. They were to be the essential middle rung in the three-tiered federal court system, which had been envisaged from the First Judiciary Act of 1789 instituted federal courts, pursuant to the Constitution’s Article 3, section 1. Under the courts of appeal were the United States district courts, which acted as trial courts for criminal and civil cases relating to federal law. The Supreme Court was above the courts of appeal. The courts of appeal embodied many aspects of the previous circuit courts. The main responsibility of appellate courts is reviewing the decision of a trial court on a given appealed case, looking for ‘mistakes of law’ that the trial court may have made. They do not ‘second guess’ factual issues that the trial courts decided earlier on. In the legal system, the jury resolves factual issues and not the appellate court (Radcliffe, 1). Each court of appeals had a geographic region, which it served. For the previous Fifth Circuit, that region comprised of Georgia, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, as well as the Canal Zone, in essence the same region that the old Fifth Circuit Court served ever since the 1866 re-organization of the circuits. In the year 1869, in an endeavor to fortify the circuits, Congress, sanctioned that a circuit judge be appointed for each circuit. In 1869, President Grant appointed William Burnham Woods as the first judge of the reorganized Fifth Circuit. Don Albert Pardee succeeded him in 1881 (UScourts.gov, 1). In the 1891 Act, which created the Court of Appeals, Congress authorized a second judge for the Fifth Circuit, and in the year 1892, Texan A.P. McCormick took that position. In 1899, David D. Shelby, an attorney from Huntsville, Alabama and ex- Confederate cavalry officer became the third judge for the Fifth Circuit. The Court of Appeals Act (1891) chose one city in each circuit where court would be take place. In 1930, the number of judges in the Court of Appe

Interview Questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Interview Questions - Assignment Example Applied Interview Questions The research initiative developed five interview questions that it administered to four individuals within the stated age groups. The following five questions were used, Who is your best friend? Why? Is it fair to judge people? Is it good to express anger? Does God really exist? At what age should people get married? Summary of Each Child’s Developmental Status Preschooler The child, at this stage, has not developed strong cognitive ability and is significantly immature as compared to an adult, with respect to reasoning. Thoughts appear to be specific, restricted, and offered only one at a time. At the same time, the child cannot connect occurrences with their causes to explain causal relationships. Even though members of the group can identify observations such as in nature, they still do not know what drives such occurrences. They also offer personalized responses to questions. In the interview, for instance, the child could identify her best frie nd but the reason for such friendship is misunderstood. This is because their often plays are a consequent of their closeness and not vice versa. The answer with respect to judgment also expresses the level of cognitive ability, as the child seems to have answered the question without considering factors around actions that might have lead to subject situations. Based on the response, the child thinks that people should be judged simply because of their involvement in an act without considering factors towards such actions. The same argument applies to the child’s response with respect to anger to mean that as long as people have emotions, they are free to express them without considering the emotions’ possible impacts. This is also observed in the other questions (Tuckman & Monetti, 2010). Elementary School Student A child’s development ability is more advanced at this stage and a higher level of reasoning is demonstrated. Even though much of the child’s thoughts are still self-centered, there is application of trial and error in application of logical reasoning. Operational reasoning towards comparability is, however, less developed within the age group who may miss rationality on value measurements. Results of the interview questions reflect the difference between the preschooler and the elementary school pupil. The child’s reason for his best friendship is for example more rational that that of the preschooler as it identifies a mutual relationship besides offer from the friend as a driver. Even though the response to the judgment question was not accompanied by the interviewee’s reason, the child’s opinion that it is not fair to judge people shows some rationality towards social and environmental factors that may force people into adverse actions. The other responses correspond to those offered by the preschooler and indicates that the two groups are close to each other in terms of cognitive development (Tu ckman & Monetti, 2010). Middle School Level Child The child at the middle level school has developed more ability that the previous two groups. The group can adequately apply rationale in comparing objects’ values, a property that was lacking in the preschooler and the elementary school children. The child has also, at this stage, developed operational abilities and