Trial Courts Vs. Appeals Courts

• The process of litigation is usually initiated in a trial court, which is also known as a lower court. The plaintiff and defendant in a lawsuit each make their case to the judge or jury in a trial case. An appellate court does not weigh evidence. It is a court of review that determines whether the trial or lower court's proceedings were conducted in the right manner.
  
  

Resolving of Disputes

• One important role of a trial court is to resolve disputes. The court listens to the arguments of the parties involved in the dispute and then weighs the evidence. Then the court has to make a decision based on legal principles and the merits of the case. The trial could be decided by a jury or the judgment could come from a judge.
  
  

Making Judgments

• Once the judge or jury in the trial court listens to the evidence, they have to apply the precedents that have been legally established and also laid down by higher courts to make a judgment. For instance, a jury could decide that a defendant in a car-accident case caused injury to a plaintiff through negligence in not heeding a stop sign and driving into the defendant.
  
  

Other Functions

• Trial courts also perform a variety of functions to fulfill their primary role of adjudicating cases and making judgments. They monitor the flow of cases through the system, for example, and authorize search warrants. They have to schedule cases and manage the court resources. Trial courts have to issue summons to prospective jury members, and they select juries. They also maintain minutes of court functions and manage the trial documents. And they provide information to the public regarding verdicts on cases.