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Federalism and the American court organization395discharging firearms, burning trash, letting animals run loose. People whoreceive traffic citations or citations for the offenses may have their cases inmunicipal court. It’s surprising that in some cases the judge may not bea lawyer. Although many municipal court judges are lawyers, some stateallows the city officials, such as the mayor, to double as municipal courtjudge, especially in small towns. Appeals don’t occur very often.The justice of the peace court, often called JP court, is the second commontype of court of limited jurisdiction. These JP courts have a greatamount of function that is not always of judicial nature. Most justices of thepeace have minor administrative duties like preparing the court’s yearlybudget and hearing court personnel. In some states JP courts are still permittedto perform marriages, and in some states they serve as coroner incases in which foul play is suspected in someone’s death.Justice of the Peace courts usually have both civil and criminal jurisdiction.The civil jurisdiction is limited to small monetary amounts. Of course,it depends on the state. If it is $3,000, the lawsuit not exceeds $3,000 and JPcourt has the jurisdiction. This is why JP courts are often called small claimcourts. Although lawyers are allowed to appear in JP courts in most states,the litigants often just represent themselves and let the judge decide thecase without the jury. The Criminal jurisdiction of JP courts extends tomisdemeanor offenses that occur within the limits of their geographic boundaries.Crimes such as petty larceny and simple battery are kinds that aremost likely to be tried in JP court. Most states limits the amount of thepunishment a JP court can handle out. In addition to hearing trials, justiceof the peace often conduct arrangements for people accused of more seriouscrimes.It is noticeable that the kinds of cases handled by JP courts are morevaried than those of a municipal court. Procedure in small claims courts isvery informal and there is generally no appeal from a judgment. Sometimeslawyers are prohibited from representing parties in such courts. Many statesdo not require justices of the peace to be licensed attorneys 44 .County courts are the third category of courts of limited jurisdiction.County courts’ jurisdiction has a greater expanse of jurisdiction than municipalor JP courts, but is limited to the county lines. For civil cases the amountof controversy may be as high as several thousand dollars. In criminal casescounty courts may have jurisdiction over offenses with penalties as great asone year imprisonment or adequately high fines. They may also function ascourts of appeal for lower courts with specialized jurisdiction. When anappeal is made to a county court from lower court, it isn’t an appeal in theusual sense. Actually, the county court starts a “trial de novo” – a wholly new44 Many writers underline that the JP system is inadequate these days.