Ancient Greek Legal System(4)

Dikastic Courts
With the emergence of the ephetai came a new age of dikastic courts. Previous courts were replaced with one, which heard every kind of case.
Regular public prosecutions were referred to as a graphe, and a dike was a private prosecution.
Graphe translates literally into 'a writing,' and in this case it means 'a written indictment'.
Dike translates literally into 'prosecution'.
The dikastai had the power to decide the law, to decide the facts, and to pass sentence on the party(s) involved.
To qualify as a member of the dikastai, one needed to meet three requirements.
The potential dikastes needed to have full citizen rights, be at least thirty years old, and he had to be one of the six thousand fully qualified citizens that took the dikastic oath at the start of that year.
For normal cases the dikastai was made up of about 500 members, and for private cases either 200 or 400, depending on the sum involved.
Fulfilling the requirements of the dikastai did not require the individual to then be available to try cases every day.
Each panel of dikastai was simply made up of those legitimate dikastai members that showed up that day.
Those that joined the dikastai for that day would oversee a typical case consisting of a dispute between two litigants. The verdict in the case was a vote for one or the other.
Verdicts in Athenian courts were not subject to appeal, and sometimes the dikastai would vote after the trial to find a penalty as well.