Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in District of Columbia

Re: Federal Court System

The steps of a case through the federal court system are, generally speaking, as follows:

1. The filing of a complaint by a plaintiff.

2. A response to the complaint by a defendant. The response might be a motion to dismiss the complaint for its failure to state a claim (among a variety of other possible motions) or the defendant may "answer" the complaint, either admitting or denying the various allegations of the complaint.

3. "Discovery" ensues, which means that each side produces relevant documents, answers various questions posed in written form (typically called interrogatories), takes depositions of various parties and non-parties, and otherwise learns more about the facts and players in the lawsuit.

4. Frequently, during or after discovery ends, one or more parties my file a motion for summary judgment, which means that the moving party is seeking to win the lawsuit (or a portion of the lawsuit) without having a trial.

5. Trial of the lawsuit, either with a jury or by a bench trial (with the judge deciding everything).

In broad-based terms, these are the steps of a federal lawsuit. Note, however, that there are an endless variety of changes to the above scenario.

-- Kenneth J. Ashman; [email protected]; www.lawyers.com/alo

Re: Federal Court System

The first step for most cases is filing a complaint with the United States District Court for the relevant district. For instance, in Manhattan, this is the Southern District Next in the hierarchy is the Circuit Court of Appeals--for New York, it's the Second Circuit. Then, the Supreme Court (if they agree to review the Second Circuit's decision).

There are also specialized courts that hear certain types of cases -- the Tax court, Trade court, Court of Federal Claims. But for most federal cases, it starts in the District Court.