How many states have unified court systems?
Although several court systems refer to themselves as being “unified,” in truth, no state has such a system. Court unification, not to be confused with its component concept, trial court consolidation, is a collection of characteristics or processes: centralization of administrative authority, centralization of rulemaking powers, unitary budgeting, state (vs. local) funding of trial courts, and trial court consolidation. Court systems that call themselves unified are generally only partly so, as they have not fully realized all the elements of unification. The following state court systems are identified as unified courts by the Court Statistics Project: California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Puerto Rico, South Dakota, and Wisconsin (see Examining the Work of State Courts).
