With consideration as to the size of Texas, I think it is necessary for Texas to have the complicated Supreme Court system that it has today. The Supreme Court System is used to take on both civil cases and criminal cases, and this is why it must be separated into two distinct branches. The first branch of the State Court of Texas is the Texas Supreme Court. This court according to the website for Supreme Court Laws (2017), the Texas Supreme Court “hears and administers decisions concerning civil cases. ”
According to Nolo. om (2017), a civil case is a “noncriminal lawsuit, usually involving private property rights. For example, lawsuits involving breach of contract, probate, divorce, negligence, and copyright violations are just a few of the many hundreds of varieties of civil lawsuits. ” Civil cases also do not include indictments, only financial compensation depending on the case. For example Judge Judy is a civil court that always takes on cases where the plaintiff wants money from the defendant. The second branch of the Texas Supreme Court is the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
This branch takes on cases that are considered criminal. According to Business Dictionary (2017), a criminal case is “Prosecution by the State of a person or organization, for committing a public wrong considered an offense against the State. Standard of proof for crimes is higher than for civil wrongs and, for major crimes such as a murder, guilt must be established beyond a reasonable doubt. Also called criminal suit. ” In criminal cases, you can be put in jail because it is considered a criminal wrong and the plaintiff is no longer simply trying to get financial compensation.
The criminal may have to pay a fine because of the crime that they committed, but the judge is looking to sentence the criminal to a certain length of jail time. I think the Supreme Court should maintain the same multi branch that it has today because of the sheer size of Texas. With the amount of civil and criminal cases that reach the Supreme Court per year, I think it would be foolish for it to downsize. If anything, I would be for increasing the size of the Texas Supreme Court because they hear multiple types of cases that range from traffic violations and small and large claims in the civil courts all the way to capital murder.
According to the University of Austin (2017), the Supreme Courts gets an annual state funding of 3. 3 billion dollars for public safety and corrections along with 175 million dollars worth of funding for the court system. Even then the funding can be quiet sparse. Also The University of Austin (2017), there has been a lot of obstacles to keeping the proper administrations due to the lack of funds. This is shown when the university published, “Despite their emphasis on being tough on crime, state politicians paradoxically have been unable or unwilling to adequately fund a well-functioning justice system.
The results have been well-publicized shortages in funds for critical components of the justice system such as crime labs, public defenders, police training, white collar crimes divisions, and judicial salaries. ” | also believe, however, that the large size of Texas does put a damper on the effectiveness and the ability of the Texas court system to get the job done. In order to be successful in persecuting civil and criminal wrongs, the courts need funding if they want to accomplish anything.
University of Austin (2017), the only area that has sufficient funding is the jail system. The Texas government issued a mandate to relieve overcrowding by building new jails and adding on to the old ones. However, with all the accused criminals coming from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals flooding into jails, it is almost impossible to prevent overcrowding. Impacts like these have led to numerous problems, including higher tensions among inmates, which has led to increased violence.
Situations like these are why I think the Texas government should preserve the ame structure in the court system while increasing their funding. Finding ways to do this can and will be difficult because of how many cases come through Texas each year. I would like to see this change because it has become apparent that the system needs more funding to stay on top of all the cases. This change also needs to occur in order to build more jails since overcrowding has become such a serious issue. The only other state that could compare to the correctional facilities in Texas would be California.
However, even with California as an example, I think it would be wise to keep the structure of the Texas Supreme Court the way it is. I believe having a separate, multi layered judicial branch of government is an extremely effective way of doing things. One side handling the civil cases while the other side handles the criminal cases opens many doors for lawyers to specialize in either criminal or civil law, which makes the court run more efficiently. Whether the structure of the Supreme Court is ever changed or not, I believe there will always be issues concerning the way it is organized and run.
Arguments could be made as to why the Texas court system should be combined or downsized, but I would argue otherwise. I think making a decision that could possibly overcomplicate the Supreme Court is a lot better than realizing that there are not enough employees or facilities to do get the job done. However, problems will always exist, and I think funding will always be an issue because funding can always be reallocated one way or another, so there will always be arguments as to where it should go.
I believe that more funds should certainly be given to the judiciary system because, even though criminals did earn their own tickets to jail, they should still be treated like human beings, and overcrowding needs to be taken care of. The Supreme Court of Texas is an efficient judicial branch, and I believe this is because of its structure and the way it is run. I do not think there should be any immediate changes to the structure even though there have been some impacts that have been unfortunate, like the funding. However, I believe the good impacts out way the bad ones because it is run well and the job is done efficiently.
