When there is a dispute between two parties over whether a law has been broken and what should happen if a law was broken, the parties go to court to resolve the dispute. In Virginia, there are two basic levels of courts: trial courts (the District Courts and the Circuit Courts) and appellate courts (the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court). In addition to these court levels, magistrates throughout the state serve as judicial officers with authority to issue various types of court processes, such as warrants.
There are two levels of trial courts:
• District Courts and
• Circuit Courts
At the District Courts level, there are two types of District Courts:
• Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Courts and
• General District Courts
There are two levels of appellate courts in Virginia:
• the Court of Appeals of Virginia and
• the Supreme Court of Virginia
Courts have one of two types of jurisdiction, original jurisdiction and appellate jurisdiction. Jurisdiction is the power or authority of a court to hear and decide a case. An original jurisdiction court (the District Courts and the Circuit Courts) has the power to hear and decide a case for the first time by conducting a trial. A dispute between two parties is first heard at the trial court level.
An appellate jurisdiction court (the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court) has the power to review a case that has already been heard and decided or tried by a lower court. When a decision in the case has been rendered at the trial court level, the case can be moved to the appellate court level upon appeal.
The courts are organized into 31 judicial circuits and 32 similar judicial districts. State law determines the number of Justices or judges appointed to serve at each court level. The graphic below shows the four levels of the Virginia court system, the jurisdiction of the court, and the route of appeal.
Learn more about each individual court by selecting it on the graphic below
