A courthouse or court house is a structure which houses judicial functions for a governmental entity such as a state, region, province, county, prefecture, regency, or similar governmental unit. A courthouse is home to one or more courtrooms , the enclosed space in which a judge presides over a court , and one or more chambers , the private offices of judges. Larger courthouses often also have space for offices of judicial support staff such as court clerks and deputy clerks.
23-531: Herkimer County Courthouse is a historic courthouse building in Herkimer , Herkimer County, New York . It is a three-story, wood-frame structure with painted brick walls built in 1873. It features an octagonal tower with arched openings and a mansard roof . It was the site of the 1906 trial of Chester Gillette . It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. This article about
46-582: A United States post office as well as court facilities for the District of New Jersey . Some branches of U.S. federal government courts are housed in rented office space in buildings housing commercial tenants; for instance, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware is located in an office building in Wilmington, Delaware , across the street from the main courthouse of
69-468: A completely different continent. These characteristics include the materiality in terms of large stone construction, the repetitive rhythmic use of windows containing various sized arches and barrel vaults directing attention towards them, decorated spandrels (wall section connecting arches) and the inclusion of gabled walls (pointed sections). Old City Hall has been designated a National Historical Site since 1989. United States District Court for
92-584: A federally owned building that houses courtrooms, chambers and clerk's offices. Many federal judicial districts are further split into divisions, which may also have their own courthouses. However, sometimes divisional court facilities are located in buildings that also house other agencies or offices of the United States government; for instance, the Mitchell H. Cohen United States Courthouse in Camden, New Jersey houses
115-606: A historic property or district in Herkimer County , New York , that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places , is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Courthouse The term is commonly used in the English-speaking countries of North America. In most other English-speaking countries, buildings which house courts of law are simply called "courts" or "court buildings". In most of continental Europe and former non-English-speaking European colonies,
138-685: Is equivalent to the city hall as the symbol of the municipium in European free cities . Courthouses are often shown in American cinema (i.e. " Peyton Place ", " Back to the Future ", and " My Cousin Vinny "). They range from small-town rural buildings with a few rooms to huge metropolitan courthouses that occupy large plots of land. The style of American architecture used varies, with common styles including federal , Greek Revival , neoclassicist , and modern . Due to
161-836: The United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey is Philip R. Sellinger . The United States District Court for the District of New Jersey holds court at Mitchell H. Cohen Building & U.S. Courthouse in Camden , at Martin Luther King Building & U.S. Courthouse and Frank R. Lautenberg Post Office and Courthouse in Newark , and Clarkson S. Fisher Building & U.S. Courthouse in Trenton . As of May 31, 2024 : Chief judges have administrative responsibilities with respect to their district court. Unlike
184-497: The Judiciary Act of 1801 reorganized the federal court system, resulting in the state being divided into Eastern and Western districts. The Judiciary Act of 1801 was repealed on March 8, 1802 and New Jersey was re-established as a single district court. The United States Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey represents the United States in civil and criminal litigation in the court. As of December 16, 2021
207-573: The Oklahoma City bombing , the federal government proceeded to heavily fortify all large federal buildings, including many urban courthouses. Some courthouses in areas with high levels of violent crime have redundant layers of security. For example, when the Supreme Court of California hears oral argument in San Francisco or Los Angeles, visitors must pass through one security checkpoint to enter
230-588: The District of New Jersey The United States District Court for the District of New Jersey (in case citations , D.N.J. ) is a federal court in the Third Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act , which are appealed to the Federal Circuit ). The Judiciary Act of 1789 established New Jersey as a single District on September 24, 1789. On February 13, 1801
253-703: The Los Angeles Superior Court added such checkpoints to all entrances to its main courthouse in Downtown Los Angeles after a woman was shot and killed by her ex-husband in open court in September 1995. The Supreme Court of California ruled in 2002 that Los Angeles County (which at the time was responsible for maintaining the courthouses) was not liable to her three children under the California Government Tort Claims Act. After
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#1732852385139276-480: The Supreme Court, where one justice is specifically nominated to be chief, the office of chief judge rotates among the district court judges. To be chief, a judge must have been in active service on the court for at least one year, be under the age of 65, and have not previously served as chief judge. A vacancy is filled by the judge highest in seniority among the group of qualified judges. The chief judge serves for
299-627: The building housing the courthouse may be named in some way or its function divided as between a judicial building and administrative office building. Philadelphia City Hall , for instance, serves as the seat of the legislative and executive functions of the consolidated city and county of Philadelphia , but most of its floor space is devoted to the Civil Division of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas . The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania shares space with three local governments and with
322-643: The building, and another to enter the courtroom. In Canada , each municipality constructs its own courthouse, or several in the case of large cities. In smaller communities the court is in the same building as the city hall and other municipal offices. In the past many courthouses also included the local prison. One well-known court house in Canada is the Romanesque Revival (Neo-Romanesque) Old City Hall in Toronto , Ontario . Designed by E.J. Lennox , Old City Hall
345-427: The courthouse also contains the main administrative office for the county government, or when a new courthouse is constructed, the former one will often be used for other local government offices. Either way, a typical courthouse will have one or more courtrooms and a court clerk's office with a filing window where litigants may submit documents for filing with the court. Each United States district court also has
368-570: The district court. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of California has a courthouse in Yosemite to hear misdemeanors and petty crimes for Yosemite National Park . Most of the United States courts of appeals are based in the main courthouses of the federal district court in the city in which they are seated. The courthouse is part of the iconography of American life and
391-523: The equivalent term is a palace of justice (French: palais de justice, Italian: palazzo di giustizia, Portuguese: palácio da justiça). In the United States , most counties maintain trial courts in a county-based courthouse, which also house other county government offices. The courthouse may be a part of a wider county government building or complex. The courthouse is usually located in the county seat , although large metropolitan counties may have satellite or annex offices for their courts. In some cases,
414-440: The footprint of the building. Secure entrance vestibules provide court staff the opportunity to screen visitors to the building for contraband, such as weapons and narcotics, as well as for unauthorized access. Mid size to larger courthouses often have separate entrances to the building for the public, prisoners, judges, and witnesses. These entrances may be monitored remotely from a central security station. In lower risk settings,
437-1052: The legislative and executive branches of the state government of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia City Hall in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg , which it shares with the Pennsylvania General Assembly and the Governor of Pennsylvania , and the Pittsburgh City-County Building in Pittsburgh , which it shares with the governments of the City of Pittsburgh and of Allegheny County . Many judges also officiate at civil marriage ceremonies in their courthouse chambers. In some places,
460-465: The modalities involved in the hearing of complex cases, including civil, criminal, and family law disputes, the architecture of court buildings can present significant security challenges to enforcement officers. Architects typically use two main tools to mitigate security risks within the adjudicative space depending upon local needs, such as the proliferation of weapons: secure entrance vestibules and separation of circulation pathways and adjacencies within
483-419: The only place the systems of circulation, including hallways, stairwells, and elevators overlap is within the monitored setting of the courtroom. This reduces the risk of unauthorized access to court materials by the public, such as court clerk record vaults, as well as the risk of in-custody defendants intimidating witnesses or jurors while being escorted through the public areas of the courthouse. For example,
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#1732852385139506-654: The security screening may be more perfunctory and serve as an information desk to direct visitors to the various agencies and offices housed within the court building. Once users of the court have entered the building through security screenings and access control checkpoints, the circulation systems of passageways through the building provide discrete pathways by which the public, court staff, and in-custody defendants access to courtrooms and other court services, such as attorneys, pretrial and probation services, and clerks' offices. The circulation pathways and adjacency diagrams designed for newer and larger courthouses often ensure that
529-633: Was completed in 1899 and has been functioning as a municipal building ever since. It was originally constructed to facilitate Toronto's City Council, legal and municipal offices and the city's courts however following the construction of the fourth city hall (adjacent to the third, on Queen Street) the building's purpose was limited to being solely a courthouse for the Ontario Court of Justice . The building can be described as Romanesque Revival due to multiple characteristics it shares with Romanesque architecture, despite being constructed seven centuries later in
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