Research Guides: Kentucky Legal Research Guide: Kentucky Courts

Kentucky Courts

Web Sites

Kentucky Courts

Kentucky Appellate Court Briefs This archive contains those briefs submitted to the Kentucky Supreme Court in cases decided since January 1999 and Kentucky Court of Appeals in cases decided since October 2005.
Kentucky Circuit Courts Circuit Court is the court of general jurisdiction that hears civil matters involving more than $5,000, capital offenses and felonies, land dispute title cases and contested probate cases.
Kentucky Court of Appeals Offering searchable opinions, monthly case summary reports, oral arguments calendar, court rules, and the Basic Appellate Practice Handbook.
Kentucky Court of Justice Kentucky has a unified court system and the Kentucky Court of Justice hosts the websites for all the Kentucky Courts.
Kentucky Court of Justice: Forms Library Provides access to fillable PDF forms.
Kentucky Court Rules West's Compilation of Kentucky Court Rules & Procedures.
Kentucky District Courts District Court is the court of limited jurisdiction.
Kentucky Family Court In addition to the family matters heard in Circuit Court, Family Court judges also handle family law matters that were traditionally decided in District Court. Family Court jurisdiction is defined by KRS 23A.100 and 23A.110.
Kentucky Supreme Court Offering searchable opinions, monthly case summary report, oral arguments calendar, live stream oral arguments, and court rules.

Kentucky Court Structure

The Constitution of Kentucky separates the state government into three branches, each with distinct areas of responsibility — the executive, the legislative and the judicial.

The primary function of the judicial branch is to fairly and impartially settle disputes according to the law. To do this, a number of courts have been established in the state by the Constitution and by acts of the Kentucky Legislature.

Kentucky has a "unified court system" for operation and administration which is referred to as the Kentucky Court of Justice. The courts are divided into the Supreme Court, a Court of Appeals, a trial court of general jurisdiction know as the Circuit Court and a trial court of limited jurisdiction known as the District Court. The Family Court now covers 71 counties in Kentucky and hears family matters that were traditionally heard in Circuit Court or in District Court.

For more information about the Judicial System Structure in Kentucky, click here.

Guides

Basic Appellate Practice Handbook : A Guide to the Rules of Civil Procedure for the Kentucky Court of Appeals
Kentucky Circuit Court Clerk's Manual by Administrative Office of the Courts
Kentucky Instructions to Juries
Call Number: KFK 1742 .P35
ISBN: 1593454031
Publication Date: 2006-01-01
vol. 1 criminal and vol. 2 civil

Citation Rules

Kentucky Citation
For documents submitted to the Kentucky courts, you should follow the citation rules found in the Kentucky Rules of Civil Procedure. Go to Kentucky Rules of Civil Procedure - Title lX Appeals.

Kentucky Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 76.12 (4)(g) Form of Citations.
The citation of Kentucky cases is in line with the Bluebook style and case names may be italized or underlined.
For Example: Haney v. Butler, 990 S.W.2d 611 (Ky. 1999) and Owens v. Williams, 995 S.W.2d 196 (Ky. App. 1997).

Kentucky Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 76.28 (4)(c)
Rule for citing unreported appellate decisions.
Opinions that are not to be published shall not be cited or used as binding precedent in any other case in any court of this state; however, unpublished Kentucky appellate decisions, rendered after January 1, 2003, may be cited for consideration by the court if there is no published opinion that would adequately address the issue before the court. Opinions cited for consideration by the court shall be set out as an unpublished decision in the filed document and a copy of the entire decision shall be tendered along with the document to the court and all parties to the action.