Now normally, I wrie my own articles, but today, I’ve got to get back to the ranch and we will have a guest columnist, Chuckwagon Sally. You see, every year, we have a shingding at the ranch and a lot of young lawyers come and can work on their cases.
I am sitting around the fire one day eating my grub that Chuckwagon Sally has just conjured up, listening to a young lawyer complain about a recent trial he had just completed. He was explaining to Chuckwagon Sally how the cards are stacked against you in a criminal trial and how much harder the defense had to fight vs. the persecution, that’s what Chuckwagon Sally calls “them”. Chuchwagon Sally hears enough complaining from this youngster and pipes up and says, “boy, a trial is like a trail ride,,, after you have gathered up your cattle and you are getting off your horse, you have to try not to step in sh-t.”
I sit there and ponder over Chuckwagon Sally’s pearls of wisdom and youngster asks her, “Chuckwagon Sally, how do you relate a trail drive to a trial”? Chuckwagon Sally looks a little frustrated when he asks her that question but, she replies, “son, you just sit there and eat up while I explain.”
When you enter a courtroom well, that is the same as riding on in. When you gather up your cattle is the same as picking a jury. Now, when you start the trial is when you get off your horse and of course, when you try not to step into sh-t is when you, as a defense lawyer, try not to piss off the jury or judge.
Chuckwagon Sally may be a little rough around the edge, but she makes a pretty darn good point. Defense attorneys do bear a greater burden than the “persecution” as Chuckwagon Sally says. The judge it seems is most always easier on the persecution than he is on the defense, even if the defense is in the right.
Now if that isn’t enough, Chuchwagon Sally continues on by saying that she thinks that judges should only serve a limited time behind the bench and then they need to “get off their asses and work for a livin.” Chuckwagon Sally says “that sittin behind that bench gave them splinters in their asses and put them in a bad mood most of the time.” I wonder if those words are profound? Chuckwagon Sally continues on by saying,, “judges needed to get back in the saddle and rope a few steers for branding and working ‘em and then they would remember what it is like to be in the trenches fighting for your client with all of the odds stacked against you.”
Chuckwagon Sally sometimes amazes me with her profound insight. I wonder if that youngster will ever come back to the ranch? I finish eating up, get back on my horse and ride off,, pondering what Chuckwagon Sally said. Hope everyone has a nice day,,, I going back to the country.
November 15, 2008 at 8:18 pm |
I think Chuckwagon Sally might be onto something there.
I worked in Japan years ago, where I dealt with the Japanese workplace tradition of rotating personnel into different departments every four years. The theory there is that the group works better if everyone has a broad understanding of its operations.
In practice, this meant that I answered to a gentleman in the international affairs section of the office of the mayor who had previously been employed at a community center as a baseball coach, and that the new head of the city hospital was rotated from his previous post running the city zoo. Let me add that the Japanese people seem to be very happy with this system.
Imagine if Judges had to rotate between shifts on the bench, shifts working for defense, and shifts working for prosecution?
I expect their understanding of the justice system and the players in it would be considerably broader at the end of a rotation.
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