Arkansas Court Information and Structure

The court system in the State of Arkansas is structured in way to ensure that there are various courts in different levels. These courts are:

•    Arkansas Supreme Court
•    Arkansas Court of Appeals
•    Arkansas Circuit Courts (there are 23 judicial circuits in the state)
•    Arkansas District Courts (this was known before as Arkansas Municipal Courts)
•    Arkansas City Courts

Arkansas Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of Arkansas is the highest court in the state. The court has had a Chief Justice and 6 Associate Justices since 1925, and they all are elected for 8 year terms that are staggered to make it unlikely that the entire court would be replaced in a single election. In the instance that a particular Justice is unable to complete his or her term, then the position is filled by the Governor of the state.

The Supreme Court of Arkansas had 3 justices plus one Chief Justice according to the first constitution of the state, and all had to be elected by the Arkansas General Assembly. The constitution was amended in 1924 to bring in additional justices and the number was increased to 7 (Chief Justice + 6 Associate Justices).

The website of the Supreme Court in Arkansas is http://courts.arkansas.gov.

Arkansas Court of Appeals

The Court of Appeals is the intermediate appellate court in the state. It came into existence in the year 1978 through Amendment 58 to the consititution, Act 208 of the General Assembly in 1979.

It is the Supreme Court that decides the Court of Appeals’ jurisdiction. You cannot file an appeal from the Corut of Appeals to the Supreme Court of Arkansas. The opinions expressed by the court can however be evaluated by the Supreme Court in certain cases.

The Court of Appeals issues several opinions, but all of them are not published. Actually, what happens is that just the opinions that solve unique and unusual questions are published by the Reporter of Decisions of the state.

There are seven districts in the state for electing judges to the Court of Appeals, according to Act 1812 of the year 2003. What are the qualifications? They are the same as those for the Supreme Court.

The website for the Court of Appeals in Arkansas is

http://courts.state.ar.us/coa/index.cfm

.

Arkansas Circuit Courts

In Arkansas, there are 28 Circuit Courts and the judges in these courts are elected for a 6 year term. Arkansas Circuit Courts deal with cases related to criminal and civil charges, equity and estates, guardianships and adoptions, domestic issues, civil commitments and juvenile issues that are related to neglect, delinquency, and families that are in need of services.

Arkansas District Courts

These are trial courts in the state and have limited county-wide jurisdiction. In Arkansas, there are 77 such district courts.

Arkansas City Courts

These are basically trial courts of original jurisdiction over city ordinance violations. There are 91 such courts all across the state and there are 70 city court judges.

Some of the major Arkansas City Courts are located in:

•    Allport
•    Alma
•    Blackrock
•    Bradford
•    Chidester
•    Coal Hill
•    Caddo Valley
•    Cammack Village
•    Diaz
•    Donaldson
•    Elm Springs
•    Farmington
•    Greenforest
•    Greenbrier
•    Holly Grove
•    Horseshoe Bend
•    Joiner
•    Kensett
•    Mountain Pine
•    Mount Vernon
•    Plummerville
•    Redfield
•    Tuckerman
•    Turrell
•    Vilonia
•    Wabbaseka
•    Whitehall
•    Winthrop