Courts are governmental institutions that serve important functions for society, including dispute processing, policymaking, and the enforcement of rules. Courts have a profound effect on people within their jurisdiction, especially individuals subjected to a civil lawsuit or a criminal prosecution. When legal cases proceed through the court system to reach the trial stage—the most elaborate and expensive court process—average citizens can be involved as litigants, jurors, and consumers of news media coverage. Despite their importance, courts are often shrouded in mystery because their proceedings are controlled by specially trained professionals; much about their operations is not understood by the public. Courts seem familiar to people, especially in the United States, where many TV shows portray dramatic stories of lawyers and judges. However, the public image of courts and trials often fails to capture the details, controversies, and developments that shape the manner in which courts affect people’s lives.

Courts are not static institutions. They evolve and change as officials make new decisions about how judicial institutions and processes can be reformed to fulfill society’s needs. These decisions often require difficult choices from among options that emerge during debates about controversial questions. Many of these questions are not easy to evaluate: Are average citizens capable of being good decisionmakers on juries? Should poor people have greater access than they currently have to legal processes and professional representation? Should judges use their own discretion in determining sentences for criminal offenders? Can disputes be handled more effectively through processes, such as mediation and arbitration, that are different than traditional adversarial trials? Debates over the best ways to shape courts and trials are important because of the impact these institutions and processes have on public policy and the lives of individual citizens.

America has a long history of sensationalized trials and infamous lawyers and judges, but what is the truth about how our system of jurisprudence really works? Courts and Trials: A Reference Handbook makes the subject accessible by presenting an overview of the organization of courts and procedures used in criminal and civil cases, with special emphasis on contemporary developments.

The book analyzes specific issues: methods of selecting judges, the capacity of citizen-jurors to make appropriate decisions, cameras in the courtroom, "three strikes" laws, and the prosecution of juveniles as adults. The discussions illuminate competing perspectives on controversies that influence new initiatives and reforms affecting courts and their operations.