Lawyer Salaries. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that the median annual wage for lawyers was about $114,970 in 2014, with the top 10 percent of earners taking home more than $187,199 per year.ecent data found that lawyers with ten or more years of experience working in a small law firm earned between $96,250 and $161,500, while those with only one-to-three years of experience earned between $56,500 and $90,250.
A trial court or court of first instance is a court having original jurisdiction, in which trials takes place. A trial court of general jurisdiction is authorized to hear some type of civil or criminal case that is not committed exclusively to another court.
Appellate courts in the United States are not finders of fact, so they do not use juries or receive evidence into the record; that is the trial court's job. Therefore, in an appellate court, there is neither a witness stand nor a jury box, and the bench is much larger to accommodate multiple judges or justices.