Problems of the United State Court System - Research Paper Example

 Problems of the United State Court System Abstract The crime and security problem in the society emanated from time immemorial, when the people realized the need for judges. Thus, in the United States, since civilization began, the nation established jurisdictions to exercise its laws; these are the United States court systems. However, the high crime levels in the country continue to create debates on the effectiveness and efficiency of the court systems in the country. The court system suffers criticism on the grounds of its administration of the justice process along other factors. Thus, this paper evaluates the court system to establish some of the problems in this essential faction of the states and federal governments. Introduction The United Sates court system entails the judicial branch of the state and federal governments whose undertaking is to interpret and implement the law (Farnsworth & Shepherd, 2010). The United States court systems have two separate factions, administratively of which are independent of the executive and legislative factions of the government. State courts serve cases within the states of their jurisdiction while the federal courts serve the entire nation. The federal court system consists of three sections including the districts courts, which serve as the trial courts, the circuit courts that are the first courts of appeal and the supreme courts, which are the final court of appeal within the federal system. Additionally, the cases held within the state and federal courts vary depending on the federal statutes in the constitution. However, some jurisdictions of the courts may overlap; thus, the plaintiff can bring the case to either the federal or state courts. The increasing criticism against the court system raises several arguments on the issues facing the United States court systems. The problems The American society continues to become complex, mobile and dysfunctional factors are contributing significantly to the rising cases of crime in the country. However, it is the challenges of the court system that create the significant concerns over the justice system of the country (Neubauer, 2011). The court system faces several claims of bias despite the supposed protection guaranteed under the Fifth Amendment and Miranda Act among other sections of the constitution. To begin with, the court system has a case workload bogging its operations hence the claims against the case over its inefficiency in handling the justice needs of the American citizens. The growing levels of crime in the country, victims of the offenders in the different categories of crime whether juvenile or hardcore criminals continue to clog the limited court space in their quest to get justice. However, the court systems both the federal and state courts continue to work in a dragging manner among other factors leading to the bogged state of workload in the courts. There are several cases worth trying as misdemeanors, which do not proceed as expected (Neubauer, 2011). Another factor bogging the case with workload is the expensive nature of the proceedings, meaning that only corporations can afford from the profit gathering nature of the cases. Thus, with such expensive cases and the victims lacking the financial independence to push the cases through, remain in the system for years leading to clogged work in the courts. This piling of workload in the systems is slowing the working process. Thus, this problem faces the American court system. Another factor facing the court systems of the United States is the nature of the codices and their application in the various crimes, which they define. The law continues to become complicated, unless the initial ideas where there were only a few commandments to apply. Today, the constitution consists of laws, sub-law, by-laws, paragraphs, clauses, interpretations, precedents and commentaries, which are ad-infinitum (Farnsworth & Shepherd, 2010). Thus, in view of the complexity of the constitution and the extensiveness of coverage and interpretations of the laws, it takes several years of specialized legal education for the person to familiarize with a section of the law, such as the civil or corporate law. Many companies with resources retain the lawyers as permanent staff to defend the clients in court. Thus, limited lawyers advance their studies to become judges, leading to the establishment of judges who are not attorneys. This factor is due to the limited number of judges available in the system. This limited number of judges combined with the growing crime rate contributes to the issues in the system. Moreover, average people in the country cannot afford the cost of an attorney to push their cases in the courts; hence, they do not get justice. Therefore, the court system in the United States faces criticisms over its inability to administer justice due to the intricate temperament of the laws, legal education and unavailability of attorneys to oversee the completion of the cases in the courts (Farnsworth & Shepherd, 2010). Thus, people complain of ineffectiveness and injustices against them within the courts. This is a leading factor of worry for the courts as people lose faith in the working of the systems due to the complexity of the processes entailed in the system, hence causing problems for the court systems. Additionally, the concerns over admissible evidence and continuity of evidence depending on the case greatly prejudice the case. The continuity of evidence, when broken at any period renders the evidence inadmissible. Thus, incase that are crucial, factors such as the loss or tampering of evidence literally spells either life or death for the victim (Brown 2014). The court system accusers complain of the sloppy and disastrous nature in which the courts handle evidence. Thus, in this perspective, the profile of rich versus the poor divide is the eminent way of deciding justice in America. This observation threatens the independence and trustworthiness of the united court systems from the citizens of the nation. This is a rising matter of concern for the court systems as their inability seemingly to render justice continues to worry the people and the other factions of the governments. Moreover, another factor that affects the United States court system in its administration of justice is the overlapping nature of some of the crimes and jurisdictions of the courts (Brown, 2014). This is prevalent in cases where the laws of some state in the country define a certain activity as legal in that state, whereas another state defines those laws as illegal. For instance, in cases involving same-sex marriage, some laws allow same-sex relations whereas other states forbid the activity. Thus, courts within these two jurisdictions will have challenges in proceeding with the case due to this overlapping nature of the cases. Moreover, there are laws within the state judicial confines that contradict those in the federal government, causing further crisis in the administration of justice for the American population. Therefore, in view of these trials within the court systems of the country, the United States judiciary system faces challenges that threaten to cripple some cases, which are critical to the continuity and administration of justice for the people (Brown, 2014). These sections within the overlapping state and federal laws limit the process of justice administration and case processions within the court systems, creating further problems for the court system of United States. Another problem facing the court systems is the increasing involvement of politics within the confines of judiciary faction of the government (Neubauer & Meinhold, 2010). The problems of the court systems of the country along these lines include the impending threats of impeachment among others of judges within the system who make controversial judgments from both liberals and conservatives. Thus, these threats from the politicians hinder the administration of justice as judges face the impeachment from the decisions they make, hence, influencing their decision making process over the cases they administer, leading to injustices against the citizens. Secondly, the congress threatens to establish court stripping legislation in which they will consider denying the court’s jurisdiction over issues that they consider critical to the country. Thus, these threats affect the judicial process as they limit the jurisdiction of the courts, affecting the process of administering justice. Moreover, the embattling of judicial nominations along political lines affects the quality of judges as appointed (Neubauer & Meinhold, 2010). Moreover, aspects of diversity on the bench are an issue of concern as women and minority representation in the federal court bench also affect the procedures of the courts leading to appearance of or actual bias. These factors negatively influence the United States court system in its duty to administer justice, interpret and apply the law. Conclusion The federal and state courts are an essential part of the systems of government and justice. They facilitate justice, checks, and balances for the citizens and government respectively. However, with the rising trends in the country over the court system, the citizens continue to voice concerns over the happenings. It is essential for the court systems to address the issues it faces to ensure it retains the confidence and trust of the citizens of United States. References Farnsworth, E., & Shepherd, S. (2010). An Introduction to the Legal System of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press. Neubauer, D. W., & Meinhold, S. S. (2010). Judicial process: Law, courts, and politics in the United States. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Neubauer, D. W. (2011). America's courts and the criminal justice system. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Brown, D, K. (2014). the perverse effects of efficiency in criminal process. Virginia Law Review, 100(1), 183-223 Read More