Puerto Rico Becomes 51st US State: Need for New Legal System - Research Paper

Introduction

Puerto Rico, being a state of United States since 1917, the state is under the legal and court system of U.S and its residents are considered as citizens of United States. Assuming that Puerto Rico has been admitted as the 51st state, the state will require a new Puerto Rico Legal system. The state is located on the northern side of the Caribbean Sea with its capital city being San Juan, which is the most developed and occupied city in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico covers a geographical area of 8, 870 km squares. As at 2019, Puerto Rico is reported to have a population of about 3, 655,395 people (Worldometers, 2019). Its current court system has 78 municipalities consisting of districts and towns or villages and has no counties. The purpose of this paper is to design and develop a court system for Puerto Rico for implementation of the new legal system purpose after being admitted as the 51st state.

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The Aims of the Research Paper

• Create a court system for Puerto Rico.
• Design the various elements making the different court levels.
• Determine the ethics of standards governing the Judicial Court System.
• Determine the qualifications of serving as judges or as an attorney.

Research Questions

• What are the major constituents of the new Puerto Rico court system?
• What are the various court levels appropriate for the new court system?
• What are the ethics of the Judicial court system?
• What are the requirements for serving as judges or attorney generals in the courts?

The Proposed Puerto Rico State Court System

The proposed Puerto Rico court system will have town or village courts, municipal courts, appellate courts, and highest court being the Supreme court. The proposed court system is modeled from the court system of Ohio, New York, and Florida states. The state court will handle all the general jurisdiction cases that are not handled by the federal courts. The system will interpret its own laws. The supreme court will deal with the unlimited civil and criminal jurisdiction of the state. The court system will have various level of the trial and appellate courts with the highest court being the Supreme court. The Appellate Division is the highest intermediate appellate court. The Supreme court and some elements of court of Appeals are key components of the New York State court system. The major elements of municipal court are extracted from the Municipal Court of Ohio. Other municipal court structure elements are extracted from the New York State and the Florida County Courts. Moreover, the town or village courts, and the juvenile family and juvenile issues laws have been extracted from Florida and the New York court systems. The juvenile and family are integrated to create a family court.

Current Puerto Rico Court System

The existing Puerto Rico Supreme court has seven justices chosen by the Governor of the State. The current Court of Appeals has 39 judges while the lower courts are the District Courts and Municipal Courts (Casetext, 2019). The districts have District Courts each with at least one judge to handle cases within the district. Each district has a united states attorney, probation officers, court reporters, United States attorney, and court reporters. Moreover, the current Puerto Rico court system is not dependent on its Federal Court system. The court levels have village or town courts as the lowest courts, followed by the appellate courts above the lower courts.

Considering the most appropriate court system elements of the court system in accordance with the territorial borders of municipals, the proposed plan will be an effective court system that will suitable for the new state. To extensively expound the proposed plan, the lower courts will be at the bottom of the courts, the system town or village courts, up towards the highest level, the Supreme court.

Puerto Town or Village Courts

The smallest court level will be Puerto town or village which will oversee jurisdiction of the matters affecting the villages or the towns in the municipalities. Like the New York system, the town or the village courts' judges are required to serve for a 2-year term. For a judge to serve the lowest level courts, he or she must have achieved a certification course and have qualified the essential judicial training. The judges are also required to have a least of two years of experience serving as an attorney. To be listed as a running candidate, they have to forward their names to the election board and the residents of the town or the village will elect the judges. The serving years of the judges are limited to 5 two-year terms. If termination of the serving justices happens, the highest official of the respective municipal will appoint a new justice pro-tem for a certain period until re-election of another judge by the residents.

The matters handled by the courts will include traffic laws, small claims, small criminal matters, and other cases involving less than $8,000 (Morris, 1995). Choosing the town or the village courts as the smallest court helps in providing legal coverage to all the residents of Puerto Rico despite their location. The courts will help in the maintenance of legal proceedings in the smallest elements of the territorial divisions. The courts are not limited to jurisdiction and will provide the general hearing of both the general civil and criminal matters. These courts do not require the use of attorneys. On matters regarding criminal jurisdiction, the village courts have the power to handle prosecution misdemeanors and violations within their respective towns or villages. Moreover, the village courts can handle arraignment and preliminary hearings in felony matters and domestic violence matters and traffic law misdemeanors committed within the villages.

Puerto Rico Municipal Court

The current municipalities are 78 which is a high number of municipalities and will make the municipal courts have few cases to handle and also increases the complexity of managing the municipal courts. Having the municipalities number be less than 21 is manageable and less complex. The municipal system ought to be structured according to the municipal territories proposal of a States representative who proposed that the municipals were too many and ought to be reduced from the existing number to 20 (Legislator, 2009). Cutting down the number of municipalities by about 4 times will a considerable increase in the efficiency and effectiveness of the municipal courts. Also, considering the geographical size of the state, 78 municipalities is quite high, and thus having about 20 municipalities is the most suitable for the small state.

A municipal court's jurisdiction will be confined to each municipality and will handle the civil jurisdiction of small cases within the municipality. These municipal trial courts will hear civil, small claims, and criminal cases. It will also handle family issues and juvenile matters. As modeled from the Ohio municipal courts, the courts will handle the traffic, non-traffic, and small claims which are less than $15,000 value (Ohio Gov, n.d.). Moreover, the municipal court will conduct the opening hearings in offence cases. The municipal courts have limited jurisdiction and will handle non-injury trials.

The hearings will be presided over by a municipal elected judge. Judges of the municipal courts are ought to be appointed and elected once every six years on a nonpartisan ballot criterion. A judge must have attorney experience for more than five years in the court matters or in the practice of law. The maximum age ought to be 75 years and have no least age limit. Moreover, to be appointed as the judicial municipal court judges, the candidate ought to be a resident of the municipality. To be considered as a successful running candidate, the running judge ought to pay the required fee and fill an approved petition application signed by at least 3 supporting voters of the municipality. Presenting the signed petition is a required qualification to be listed as a running judge candidate for the municipality but the selection of the judges will be considered on merit and majority of 50% votes is not required. For another term election, the candidate has to follow the procedures of the election. Newly appointed judges are put under probation for one year, after which they undergo a yes-no retention election. Once qualified for the retention, the judges serve the six-year term (American Judicial Society, n.d.).

The municipal courts also will be dealing with family cases, juvenile cases, and drugs courts in their respective municipalities. Village and town residents will present their cases in their respective municipalities.

Juvenile Courts

Children young than 18 years and involved in criminal misdemeanors are brought to the juvenile courts for their case hearings. In the court, the child is given a copy of the petition and may be granted an appearance ticket during the various court proceedings. For a juvenile to be entitled for family court, he or she should not have previous murder cases, kidnapping, or 1st-degree drug charges.

Drugs Courts

These courts deal with the jurisdiction of drug offenses. The rules of the participation in the preceding are defined in the contract that has been signed by the defendant, the court, and the defendant's attorney. There is a drug treatment program that the offender must adhere or else they will be sent to prison and granted criminal record. Completion of the program will make the offender to be released on conditional probation.

Family Court

The court jurisdiction will deal with matters regarding divorce petitions and proceedings and other family issues like child custody, property distribution, and child support.

Appellate Courts

I propose that Puerto Rico' appellate court level to be made of the Court of Civil Appeals for civil jurisdiction, and the Court of Criminal Appeals for crimes jurisdiction. The court of Appeal has responsibility and the authority to review the executive branches of Puerto Rico government. The second upper court level, the Appellate court, offers the final case determination but the litigants may appeal for Puerto Rico Supreme court review. In this level, there are no witnesses, court hearings, juries, pleadings, or testimonies. The Criminal court of the San Jan city will handle misdemeanors of crimes that have a disciplinary fine or for less than a year imprisonment. The Criminal Court of Appeal judges will also deal with the arraignments. The courts of Appeals reviewal hearing consist of three-judge panels involving the reviewal of the oral and written argument that has been forwarded by the attorneys.

To be selected as a Judge of the Court of Appeals, the law practitioner should have attorney experience and have law experience of not less than five years. The age limit is 75 years but a serving judge who has attained the 75 years will be allowed to compete the serving term. The judges are elected and retained through a legislative election and legislative reelection. The running candidate's judges are required to file the Judicial Selection Commission for investigations, review of personal details and administration of the court procedure examinations. After the extensive reviewing of the candidates, the Commission will merit the qualifications of the candidates and nominate three candidates of the required vacancy. The final step involves the legislative election of the three nominated candidates.

Puerto Rico Supreme Court

The Supreme court, the highest court level of the Puerto Rico's Judicial system, will review the decisions of the state trial and the appellate courts. The trial-level court of general jurisdiction will be located in San Jan. The court will meet 4 times a year to review the Court of Appeals forwarded cases. The Supreme court will have nine judge...