| Court System | |||
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| Airdate | June 2, 2009 Updated: August 24, 2023 | ||
| Curriculum | Social Studies | ||
Court System launched in BrainPOP Social Studies June 2, 2009.
Summary[]
Moby destroyed the shelfs during Tim's own commercial. At the end, Tim confesses Moby before Tim & Tim is sued and decides to drop his lawsuit.
Update[]
Appearances[]
Trivia[]
- In the original Tim & Tim commercial, 4 scenes from other movies were shown, and they were, from clockwise left, Chickenpox, Neptune, States of Matter, and Percussion.
- The music that plays at the end is "Aisle" by Dan Phillipson.
Transcript[]
Quiz[]
- Court System/Quiz
Quotes[]
Tim: Has this ever happened to YOU? If you been harassed by cyborg, droid or automaton, you don't have to put up with that. Dial 555-NO-BOT by the law offices of Tim & Tim and get the justice you…deserve. (Moby beeps) Hey! Hey! (Moby tips the shelves over) Couldn't you waited until I was done taping? (Moby beeps again)
- [final lines]
Tim: Oh. Fine. I'll drop the lawsuit.
Update[]
FYIs[]
In Depth[]
In the United States, most criminal cases never make it to trial. Instead, they’re handled in state courts of limited jurisdiction. “Limited jurisdiction” is when a court is only allowed to decide on specific issues—usually local issues that aren’t matters of life and death.
There are thousands of these courts in America, including city courts, municipal courts, and county courts. They almost never have juries; instead, decisions are made by individual judges. Here are some of the most common state courts of limited jurisdiction in the United States.
Small claims court: Small claims courts hear civil cases—mostly private disputes of less than $5,000. Legal rules are often simplified in these courts, allowing people to represent themselves without hiring lawyers.
Family court: Family courts handle issues like divorce, child custody, domestic violence, alimony, and child visitation rights.
Juvenile court: Most crimes committed by kids 16 and under are handled in special juvenile courts.
Housing court: Some areas provide courts where tenants can resolve issues with their landlords. In New York City, housing court deals with around 300,000 cases every year!
Surrogate court: Also known as a probate court, a surrogate court is a state court that deals with wills and the distribution of dead people’s estates.
Traffic court: A traffic court handles cases related to minor traffic violations. If you get a ticket for speeding or running a stoplight, this is probably where you’ll end up.
Real Life[]
America's legal system is based on the right to a trial by jury. If someone is accused of a crime, the Constitution gives them the right to try their case in front of a jury of their peers, meaning a group of their fellow citizens. That makes serving on a jury a very important civic responsibility!
Sometime after you turn 18, you’ll receive a letter from your local court system summoning you for jury duty. All U.S. citizens are eligible for jury duty. Jurors are selected randomly from lists of registered voters and people with driver's licenses.
When you report to your local courthouse for jury duty, you’ll probably be assigned to a large pool of potential jurors. If a case requiring a jury comes up, the prosecuting and defense attorneys will conduct interviews to see who’s fit to serve on the jury. This process is known as voir dire, a French phrase that translates literally to, "to see to say." In other words, the lawyers will see how you respond to their questions. The goal is to determine whether anything might prevent you from judging a case fairly. For example, if you know the defendant, the person on trial. In that case, you’ll either be dismissed or assigned to another jury.
There are two types of juries you might be assigned to:
Trial juries, also known as petit juries, consist of six to 12 jurors. These are the kinds of juries you usually see in movies and TV shows. In a criminal case, the jury decides whether the defendant committed a crime. In a civil case, they decide whether the defendant injured the plaintiff, the person suing.
Grand juries have between 16 and 23 members. Unlike in trial juries, defendants don't have the right to appear. Instead, a U.S. attorney or prosecutor presents the evidence, and the proceedings are secret. The grand jury determines whether there is enough evidence to charge a defendant and bring them to trial. If so, prosecutors will issue an indictment, an official accusation of a crime.
Quirky Stuff[]
A long time ago, if someone sued you, they didn’t always have to tell you about it. Someone could sue you, a court could decide against you, and you wouldn’t hear about it until the authorities showed up at your door to seize your property.
Fortunately, the U.S. Constitution made this illegal. According to the Fifth Amendment, citizens cannot be deprived of “life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” So, if someone is suing you in court, they have to formally let you know beforehand.
With a few exceptions, you must be notified in person that a court is exercising jurisdiction over you. You’re presented with papers from the court—called process— that explain what’s going on, and when you need to appear.
These papers are delivered by people called process servers. In some states, they have to be court officials, but other states allow private individuals to do the job after they’ve completed a training course. If you ignore process papers you’ve received, the court can find you in default, and award your money or property to whoever’s suing you.
Needless to say, people don’t like being sued, and some people go to great lengths to avoid process servers. So, servers often use highly creative methods!
For example, a server might disguise himself as cable repairman or pizza guy to get a reluctant defendant to answer his doorbell. Or he might try to surprise a defendant when he least expects it—say, by presenting divorce papers to him while he’s out on his morning jog.
Did You Know?[]
Some legal cases are pretty easy to decide—but a lot of them aren’t.
The laws pertaining to crimes like bank robbery are fairly cut-and-dried. Every state has laws against bank robbery, and so does the federal government. So, if you rob a bank, you can easily be prosecuted and convicted under these laws.
But there simply aren’t enough written laws to cover every situation that might come before a court. And sometimes, laws can be phrased in ways that lead to several different interpretations.
When a situation like this arises, a judge will often look to see how other courts have interpreted the law in question. If a higher court has interpreted the law in a particular way, the judge will usually consider herself bound by that interpretation. That’s called following a precedent.
Sometimes a judge will also consult the common law, a collection of judicial decisions, customs, and general principles. Common law is often consulted in contract disputes, since state legislatures rarely write laws dealing with the intricacies of written contracts.
Sometimes, two courts will interpret a law in different ways, creating a situation where the same law means different things in different areas of the country. If two or more federal circuit courts disagree on how a law should be interpreted, the Supreme Court often intervenes to settle the dispute—and its judgment must be obeyed by all lower courts!