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396 Edyta Sokalskatrial, or a trial from the scratch. It is possible because some county courtsare often called courts of record, which means that a transcript is made ofthe proceedings. If no record exists in the lower court, the county court mayconduct a trial de novo 45 .There are attempts in particular states to modernize their judicial systems,but as far the judges of the county courts are not required to belicensed attorneys like other judges in courts of limited jurisdiction. Manystates retain the tradition of the county judge as the political leader of thecounty. In such states county judges are as much administrative officials asjudicial ones. A county judge may be responsible for budget preparation orthe county welfare system. County judges take responsibility for wards ofthe county, serve as juvenile court judges, commit persons to mental institutionsand probate wills. Characterizing the office of county judge as a purelyjudicial one is rather misleading.The third component of state courts are appellate courts. Appeals mechanismis available in every state. Most states have created an intermediateappeals court between the trial courts and the state’s highest court ofappeal. The purpose of existing such courts is to guarantee the litigants theright to at least one appeal while preventing the state’s highest court fromhaving routine appeals. Only the most important cases can reach the state’shighest court.It is noticeable that every state has a court of last resort often called thestate supreme court. In New York, for example, trial courts are called supremecourts and the highest appellate court is called the Court of Appeals.Most states have a single court of last resort that handles civil and criminalappeals, but Texas and Oklahoma have two such courts. Everywhere a courtof last resort is the last litigant’s chance to have the case decided favorablyonce the case has exhausted all other appellate avenues 46 .State supreme courts’ duties are identical to those of other appellatecourts except that their decisions are final unless an appeal is made to theU.S. Supreme Court. “When a state’s highest court makes a ruling involvingthe interpretation of the state constitution, a state statue, or a precedent inearlier state case, that ruling is final” 47 . The exception is when the caseraises a federal question. It may be taken to the Supreme Court of theUnited States. State supreme courts have also further obligations: ruling onopinions of the state’s attorney general. Some states permit the attorneygeneral to make preliminary interpretations of state laws, which are bindingunless overturned by a state court. State supreme court justices, especially45 J.V. Calvi, S. Coleman, op. cit., p. 68.46 L. Baum, American Courts: Process and Policy, Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1998, p. 37–47.47 J.V. Calvi, S. Coleman, op. cit., p. 44.