Comments on: Further thoughts on ISVD http://apublicdefender.com/2010/02/23/further-thoughts-on-isvd/ Wed, 25 Apr 2012 01:43:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: LJS http://apublicdefender.com/2010/02/23/further-thoughts-on-isvd/comment-page-1/#comment-54728 LJS Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:52:04 +0000 http://apublicdefender.com/?p=2817#comment-54728 As defense counsel, I think we do need to acknowledge that we live in a world of limited resources. If one is private counsel, the time spend in individual voir dire will be factored into one's fee. If one is public counsel, there are real issues of money and time as opportunity costs -- the time spent picking a jury in case A is time one can't spend researching an issue for case B. And this, of course, carries over to staffing issues for the defense, for the prosecutors, and for the courts. Thus, I think there is value in recognizing the economics of the judicial system and thinking about how to use our limited resources most efficiently. That doesn't make us traitors to our clients. That being said, I don't think eliminating individual voir dire is the best place to economize for the reasons discussed in the comments to the other post. Picking the best fact-finders for a criminal case is important -- too important to cut corners on. As defense counsel, I think we do need to acknowledge that we live in a world of limited resources. If one is private counsel, the time spend in individual voir dire will be factored into one’s fee. If one is public counsel, there are real issues of money and time as opportunity costs — the time spent picking a jury in case A is time one can’t spend researching an issue for case B. And this, of course, carries over to staffing issues for the defense, for the prosecutors, and for the courts.

Thus, I think there is value in recognizing the economics of the judicial system and thinking about how to use our limited resources most efficiently. That doesn’t make us traitors to our clients.

That being said, I don’t think eliminating individual voir dire is the best place to economize for the reasons discussed in the comments to the other post. Picking the best fact-finders for a criminal case is important — too important to cut corners on.

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