Alower court orinferior court is acourt from which anappeal may be taken, usually referring to courts other thansupreme court.[1] In relation to an appeal from one court to another, the lower court is the court whose decision is being reviewed, which may be the originaltrial court or some ofappellate court lower in rank than thesupreme court which is hearing the appeal. In other words, lower courts are 'lower' in hierarchical chain of appellate procedure than other higherappellate courts. Usually it is obligation of a lower court to follow the decision of higher appellate court, even in civil law countries whereprecedents have no binding power.[2]
Some common law countries use term "lower court" or "inferior court" as antonym for "superior court", meaning such lower courts have onlylimited jurisdiction according to importance of case (usually decided by monetary amount of claims). For information on this kind of courts, seeSmall claims court andsuperior court.
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