Cases in US district courts can be considered either alone by judges, or by judges with the jury. No more than 6 jurors are involved in the consideration of civil cases, however, their number can be increased at the request of one of the parties. Criminal cases involve up to 12 jurors.

To recognize the defendant as guilty, the unanimous consent of all jurors is necessary (everywhere except Oregon and Louisiana). The judge has the right to be solely bound by a judge. Nevertheless, in some states the jury still has the right to determine the penalty. For example, they decide by voting whether the offender should be sentenced to death (this is true for states where the death penalty still exists).

In addition to the district courts of general jurisdiction, there are courts of limited jurisdiction. Consider minor offenses punishable by fines, correctional labor, short-term imprisonment. In these same courts, civil cases with an insignificant sum of claims are considered - up to 1000-1500 $. Are called such differently: municipal, city, district, counties, general sessions and t. They are dealt with by magistrates or magistrates who may not even be legal lawyers.

In many states, there are narrowly directed courts of so-called special jurisdiction that endure so-called order granting. Sometimes they are separate institutions, sometimes they are included in the district. They resolve disputes over taxes, inheritance cases, land and labor disputes. There are courts specializing in violation of traffic rules. The pretension court considers property claims of individuals and organizations to the authorities of the country.

There are courts dealing with cases of minors, cases of domestic violence, family. The latter consider all matters arising from family relations, with the exception of divorces. Divorce cases are considered by magistrates. If they are connected with the division of property in especially large amounts, or the parents are not in a position to agree amicably with whom the child will remain, the matter is already transferred to the district.

It should be added that in addition to the direct judicial function, the district courts in the United States fulfill two more important tasks. The first is constitutional control. In the United States there are no bodies of constitutional supervision like the Constitutional Court, as in the Russian Federation, a number of European and post-Soviet countries. "The last word" always remains with the Supreme Court of the United States, which since 1803. Exclusive privilege for judicial supervision is fixed.

In practice, this means that the Supreme Court has the right to interpret the provisions of the US Constitution and to repeal judgments at all levels if they are found to be unconstitutional.

And this provision extends not only to the Supreme Court itself, but also to the system of federal district courts.

The second most important task of district courts is administrative justice. That is, they accept complaints against institutions or individual officials who have dishonestly applied (interpreted) laws. In other words, they resolve disputes in which one of the parties is represented by civil servants, the other by citizens or organizations.