Just Like That . . .

November 13, 2008 12:18 PM

ne of the things that you sort of know when you're a lawyer is that nothing ever goes to trial. It just doesn't happen. Mr. Vice and I opened our office in February and we've each had one trial so far, which isn't very many when you consider how many cases we've each handled.

Many clients start off telling you that they're completely certain that they want to try their case. But as you begin to develop a better understanding of the case and the witnesses, it's a lot easier to see where each case has huge weaknesses, so even if a case looked really good when you got it, it could start looking worse the more you learn. And at the same time, the prosecutors don't want to spend a whole day working on just one case when they've got literally thousands more waiting for them in their offices, so they tend to come up with offers that are a little better than what the initially gave you. The result is that clients start to get cold feet at the same time that the DAs make offers that are sometimes too good to turn down. So the client takes it, the trial is off, and everyone's happier than they would have been had the trial happened and things didn't go his or her way.

But sometimes clients look at a situation and decide they don't have anything to lose. Or they're innocent and refuse to ever admit otherwise. Or they're guilty but think they can beat the charges. Or the prosecutor's offer is so ridiculous that the client has nothing to lose. Or at least one of the parties is crazy.

Either way, sometimes trials do happen.

In fact, sometimes--like next week for me--two trials suddenly become a full-on "go."

1 Comments

Dee said:

good luck man!

November 16, 2008 1:19 AM

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