District of Columbia Superior Court

The Superior Court of the District of Columbia, commonly referred to as DC Superior Court, is the trial court for the District of Columbia. It hears cases involving criminal and civil law, as well as family court, landlord and tenant, probate, tax, and driving violations (no permit and DUI). All appeals of Superior Court decisions go to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals (though magistrate judge opinions are first appealed to a Superior Court Associate Judge)

The first judicial systems in the new District of Columbia were established by the United States Congress in 1801. The Circuit Court of the District of Columbia (not to be confused with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which it later evolved into) was both a trial court of general jurisdiction and an appellate court, and it heard cases under both local and federal law. Congress also established justices of the peace and an orphans' court, which were combined in 1870 into a new local court called the Police Court. The Police Court had jurisdiction over misdemeanors (concurrently with the federal courts) as well as equity powers. In 1909, Congress converted the Police Court into the Municipal Court, which became a court of record with jury trials in 1921. In 1963, Congress again converted the Municipal Court into the Court of General Sessions. Its jurisdiction was broader, although in criminal cases the federal courts retained concurrent jurisdiction. Under the District of Columbia Court Reform and Criminal Procedure Act of 1970, the Court of General Sessions was combined with the Juvenile Court (established in 1906) and the D.C. Tax Court (established as the local Board of Tax Appeals in 1937) to form the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, a trial court of general and mostly exclusive jurisdiction for D.C.

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