\u2026most of the justice is in the halls.\u201d<\/p>\n
That classic phrase among lawyers aptly describes how things work.\u00a0 When criminal charges are levied by the authorities, far more cases are closed by plea bargains than go to trial.\u00a0 In civil lawsuits, far more result in out-of-court settlements than in full blown trials.<\/p>\n
My own schedule as an expert witness in cases involving weapons, shootings, and assorted homicides is a good example. Let\u2019s look at the second quarter of 2014 from the perspective of one denizen of The System.<\/p>\n
April, 2014: Three cases, done.<\/i><\/p>\n
Case One: A Federal lawsuit with heavy political overtones, which had <\/i>to go to trial, both sides being implacable in their positions.\u00a0 I testified for somewhere between two and a half and three hours (I don\u2019t keep a clock, but it turns out the judge had a \u201cChess Clock\u201d on the bench, having allowed a certain amount of hours for each side to state their case).\u00a0 The opposing side chose not to cross-examine.\u00a0 Never a bad thing. We are waiting now for judge in this bench trial to give a ruling, because it is <\/i>a complicated matter. And, whichever side is ruled against, is sure to appeal, so the case is sure to remain alive\u2026<\/p>\n
Case Two: An excessive force case filed against a law enforcement agency, in which I was retained as expert witness on behalf of the involved officer and his department.\u00a0 Plaintiff claimed that he was shot and wounded for nothing by out-of-control rogue officer; officer who unleashed his department-issue SIG stated that the suspect was trying to run him over when he fired. Case ends shortly after deposition of plaintiff, who claims under oath that he was backing up away from officer when officer shot him for no reason; plaintiff and his attorney are shown the video of the shooting in which the plaintiff can be clearly seen attempting to crush a police officer to death with his vehicle, at which time the cop opens fire.\u00a0 Because judges in civil cases know how costly it is to the taxpayers to pay for days or weeks or months of trial \u2013 particularly when the plaintiffs have a bullshit case \u2013 they encourage the defendants in civil suits to at least attempt to settle. A chump change offer has been put on the table accordingly, shortly after the case was filed.\u00a0 After seeing the video of the actual incident, plaintiff and lawyer take the chump change and run. Case closed.\u00a0 It would have cost far more to try the case and win.\u00a0 (I don\u2019t like it\u2026 the lawyers defending the cops didn\u2019t particularly like it\u2026and the wrongfully accused officer couldn\u2019t <\/i>have liked it, but that\u2019s how things work in this society.)<\/p>\n
Case Three: Big strong guy tries to beat the crap out of little guy for no good reason. Little guy pulls out his legally carried gun, shoots big guy, makes big guy stop.\u00a0 Big guy lies about it; little guy does what the Internet told him and doesn\u2019t say anything; having only big guy\u2019s word for it The State charges little guy with attempted murder.\u00a0 I and another expert analyze the case, send in our reports, and wait.\u00a0 Initial prosecuting attorney believes the big guy, who after all is the Injured Party and the Victim, and trial is scheduled.\u00a0 New prosecuting attorney is assigned, and smart defense attorney sits down with new prosecuting attorney and explains exactly what is going on here.\u00a0 Smart new prosecutor analyses the evidence and realizes, \u201cHoly crap, this was clear-cut self-defense! I\u2019m supposed to try to prosecute this? <\/i>No Way!\u201d\u00a0 Case is dropped, ordeal is over. Nobody gives the defendant back the money he spent on his defense team, but justice has finally been done.<\/p>\n
May,2014:<\/p>\n
Quiet month for this sort of stuff on my end.\u00a0 One coast-to-coast trip to view shooting scene and interview the involved officers I\u2019ve been retained to speak for.\u00a0 Evidence absolutely confirms what the criminal justice system has already determined to be a justifiable shooting\u2026trial in the civil lawsuit over the matter is down the road.<\/p>\n
Take-away lesson: Most of these things end without going to trial. By and large, the system works.\u00a0 MOST prosecutors take seriously their role as ministers of justice, responsible for the exoneration of the innocent just as much as they\u2019re responsible for the prosecution of the guilty.\u00a0 SOME plaintiffs\u2019 cases are absolutely righteous, but SOME are nothing less than legalized extortion.<\/p>\n
June, 2014:<\/p>\n
Well, the month is young\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2026most of the justice is in the halls.\u201d That classic phrase among lawyers aptly describes how things work.\u00a0 When criminal charges are levied by the authorities, far more cases are closed by plea bargains than go to trial.\u00a0 In civil lawsuits, far more result in out-of-court settlements than in full blown trials. My own schedule […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2742","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}