Costs and Risks of Trial
The possibility of trial greatly influences negotiations. Trials are a costly and time-consuming means of establishing guilt. For example, to try a simple burglary case would take from one to four days (depending on the jurisdiction) and require the presence of the judge, bailiff, clerk, defense attorney, prosecutor, and court reporter.
During this period, none of them could devote much time to the numerous other cases requiring disposition. Also, each would be forced to spend time preparing for this trial. A trial would also require the presence of numerous noncourt personnel: police officers, witnesses, victims, and jurors. For each of these persons, a trial represents an unwanted intrusion into their daily lives.
Based on these considerations, all members of the courtroom work group have a common interest in disposing of cases and avoiding unnecessary trials. Their reasons may differ. Judges and prosecutors want high disposition rates in order to prevent case backlogs and to present a public impression that the process is running smoothly. Public defenders prefer quick dispositions because they lack enough people to handle the caseload. Private defense attorneys are dependent on high case turnover to earn a living, because most of their clients can afford only a modest fee.
In short, all members of the courtroom work group have more cases to try than time or resources to try them (Eisenstein and Jacob 1977). To a large extent, then, a trial is a mutual penalty that all parties seek to avoid through plea bargaining.
To be sure, not all trials are avoided. But through plea bargaining, scarce trial resources can be applied to the cases that need to be tried.
Cited from:
America's Courts and the Criminal Justice System
David W. Neubauer
Copyright 2002
Wadsworth/Thomson
