Trial Success Rates
I was joined on the elevator by a few older people who work at BIGLaw - the super-huge firm that lives on the top three flooors of the building where I work. Anyhow, Female Partner asked Male Partner how his daughter's post-law school job was working out:
I got off the elevator and wondered - one win out of (my estimated) 14 trials.... is that good? I mean, obviously not good in most areas, but is 1 in 14 a good win-rate for a Public Defender?
Male Partner: "Well, she won't be working Saturday or Sunday. This is the first weekend that she doesn't have a trial starting the following Monday."
Lex: Damn. Suckin.
Female Partner: "Really? Every Monday, that's awful. For how long?"
Male Partner: "Since she started in September. She's a public defender, says she loves it."
Female Partner: "So how's she doing?"
Male Partner: Moment of quiet tabulation. "I think she's won one."
I got off the elevator and wondered - one win out of (my estimated) 14 trials.... is that good? I mean, obviously not good in most areas, but is 1 in 14 a good win-rate for a Public Defender?
posted by Lex Fori at
4:35 PM
5 Comments:
Normally, I would give the kid a break and say, "Hey, everyone has to learn sometime." 1 out of 14 is bad, but hopefully that win was the latest case, and she is learning....
However, Daddy is a partner at BIGLaw, and she has been exposed to the situation probably her whole life, so....
She sucks!
By
Crazy East Coast Uncle, at 9:36 PM
Hope I never need a public defender in your state.
Loony Tunes Aung
By
Anonymous, at 11:26 AM
Don't know about trial cases, but 1 in 14 would be a great appellate success ratio.
Even I'm(!) thinking about becoming a public defender to try to even out the scales a bit.
By
wt, at 1:33 PM
Thinking of the people who need PDs, winning 1 in 14 is probably pretty good. The PDs do everything they can to stop things from getting to trial - all that settling/dealing they make.
By
Anonymous, at 8:30 PM
Yeah, I was kinda thinkin' what Arbusto said. But it does seem like the super-guilty folks plea the hell outta there before they get bench-slapped with the stiffest penalties, so I would think (without any basis in actual knowledge) that the ones that get to trial are the ones that are on the border. The ones with an actual shot at establishing reasonable doubt.
But WTF do I know... If WT is going to be a PD, the whole world has turned upside down on me.
By
Lex Fori, at 5:29 PM
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