Do Federal, State and County Courts handle different types of criminal offenses?
When conducting Criminal Background Checks it is important to know the difference between each type of court. Federal Courts handle crimes that violate Federal laws, such as bank robbery, counterfeiting, auto theft, using the mail to defraud, federal narcotics violations, interstate commerce, crimes committed across state lines, etc. Federal District Court searches are available by retrieval service only. State Courts handle crimes based on state laws, constitutions of the individual state. These laws are enacted by the individual state legislatures. Each state is independent and unique. SOME states, but NOT ALL, have statewide court systems with online access. In states that do not have statewide systems, criminal cases are handled at the county level. Both of these searches involve criminal records, but the source of information and the focus of each search is very different.
