{"id":369057,"date":"2016-04-04T10:47:07","date_gmt":"2016-04-04T15:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.findlaw-admin.com\/ability-law\/litigation\/legal-system\/what-types-of-federal-courts-are-there.html"},"modified":"2016-06-20T20:24:30","modified_gmt":"2016-06-21T01:24:30","slug":"what-types-of-federal-courts-are-there","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.findlaw.com\/litigation\/legal-system\/what-types-of-federal-courts-are-there.html","title":{"rendered":"What Types of Federal Courts Are There?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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What Types of Federal Courts Are There?<\/h1>\n
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The Federal Courts consist of several types of courts. Sometimes, they are designed to hear a specific type of case, such as bankruptcy<\/a> or tax cases, but other times, the division of courts reflects the basic structure of the U.S. Government as outlined in the Constitution<\/a>.<\/p>

The first three articles of the U.S. Constitution describe the three branches of government<\/a>. Article I describes the congress, Article II describes the executive branch, which is run by the president, and Article III describes the judicial system.<\/p>

Article III Courts <\/h3>

Article III courts are those that are expressly authorized in the judicial section of the Constitution. Aside from the three levels of general federal courts (district, appellate, and Supreme Court<\/a>), there are also several U.S. magistrate judges in each district. These judges take some of the workload off of the district court judge by hearing pre-trial motions<\/a>, which are the legal arguments that take place before the trial actually starts. Magistrates can also hear some minor cases upon consent of the parties.<\/p>

Article I Courts <\/h3>

Article I Courts are created by the legislature to help support the laws they have written. These courts include:<\/p>