Preview

Courtroom Workgroups

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
265 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Courtroom Workgroups
Courtroom Workgroups

Courtroom Workgroups are a group of everyone normally involved in a formal trial working together in a non-formal fashion. Their main goal is to try and avoid any delays and to avoid formal trials as best they can. I think this system works better than the formal system, because it speeds things up and, like the book says, most people who get that far in the system are usually guilty.
Some of the Pros to this is, like I said, it speeds things up with the trial and is more efficient. And it also makes it so people don’t have to come to jury duty. Nobody likes jury duty. This also takes out much of the unnecessary and very time consuming trials. This is a good thing. It also provides practice cases for newer lawyers to get there career going in the right direction.
The Cons to this are that people, who do like jury duty, don’t get to go. And also the public might not like it as much. People like big trials. It gives them something to talk about. When you take that away, they may not like the system so much. They may also think that they are not being involved as much as they should be, since there is no jury.
In conclusion, I feel I have explained the basic elements and operations of a sociocultural system known as a courtroom workgroup. I have also learned why there is not very many trials, and when there is one, why it is such a big

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    One of the important roles a judge, a criminal prosecutor, and a criminal defense attorney will carry out is called, a “courtroom work group”. The courtroom work group interact on a daily basis by these three entities joining together to converse over matters such as if the case has probable cause to convict the offender or whether or not if there is enough evidence to go forward with a criminal trial. Normally, the prosecutor will try to persuade the defense that they do not have a case or try to talk the defense into a guilty plea or possible bail. In other words, anything they can do to speed up the process with various types of negotiations. The judge has to remain ethical and fair to see both sides of the prosecution and defense to determine if the negotiations are valid enough to go through with. Even though the judge, prosecutor, and defense attorney are the main officials of the courtroom work group, we cannot forget about other members that play a part as well. The minor (respectfully) members or other members that make up a courtroom work group are the court clerk, the bailiff, and the court reporter. The court clerk upholds all the records while the court reporter makes sure he/she transcribes the official proceedings. The bailiff helps to keep court order throughout a trial. Although I can understand how the main officers discuss the case and try to solve it without a trial, I feel that every case should be heard. The major problem with this though is time and money. In order for every offender to have a case without the prosecutor trying to convince the defense into something else, there would have to be a lot more courthouses with a lot more main officers. The only way this would ever happen is to hike up the taxes and no one wants their taxes to increase.…

    • 1708 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the courtroom there is a group of key players that work together on a daily basis. They are made of a group of professionals. These professional are those who know all aspects of a criminal trial and they work together in performing the duties of the court.…

    • 328 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The courtroom workgroup consists of the participants that work for the court. The workgroup is composed of the judge, prosecuting attorneys, defense attorneys, public defenders, and others that work for the court, such as the clerk and the court reporter. The judge has overall control of the courtroom and the workgroup. The judge is responsible for keeping the order and deciding guilt or innocents of the accused. The courtroom workgroup interacts daily in many ways. It is the responsibility of the judge to oversee all that goes on within the courtroom and ensure that rights are not violated as well as rule on each case that is put before them. The defense attorneys, prosecuting attorneys, and the public defenders, help paint a picture if you will for the judge of what happened. The judge then interprets the information he or she is given to determine guilt or innocence without bias ensuring that the accused receives a fair trial. The courtroom workgroup functions well, needing no major changes.…

    • 1183 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although jury nullification has some downsides when it is abused by a biased jury, there are many reasons to support it. Jury nullification helps keep unfair laws in check by allowing them to be bypassed. It is protected by the rights given in the 6th amendment. And it is needed to nullify the law when a person breaks it in order to protect themselves. Jury nullification needs to be legal because it is necessary to the court process.…

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    courtroom between the victim, and the courts process itself. There are two pieces of literature used…

    • 1385 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Overtime, a lot has changed in the American government. One of these changes is the introduction of the jury system. Ever since the introduction of the jury system, the judicial branch has changed. But the question is, is this change worth it? is it a good idea?…

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Media in Court Cases

    • 333 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Pre-Trial Publicity “Due to extensive media coverage, jury selection in a high profile case can be extremely difficult. Jurors will likely have developed some biases about the case based on the media coverage to which they have been exposed”( "Media Influence In Capital Cases", 2011). Under the 6th amendment you have the right to a fair trial by an impartial jury of your peers. That becomes extremely difficult and possibly impossibly when the media open a flood gate of “facts” and opinions before the case has even begun. In some instances they have to relocate to court case to an area where the media coverage of the case has not been so rampant just too find impartial jurors. Which just increase the cost of the court case.…

    • 333 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The courtroom workgroup is made up of people in the criminal justice system such as judges and prosecutors. They decide what happens in every case that is presented in the system and use their discretion on whether to deny or accept a case. The way that cases are identified as serious depends on the evidence that is available. Other factors such as witnesses, prior record, and criminal activity is all taken into account. If the courtroom workgroup decides that there isn’t enough information for the case to go on they drop it because they see no use in wasting their time with it. Walker mentions that most of the cases like rape are what get dropped because of insufficient evidence and people tend to see it as the offender getting off the hook (2015, p. 66). It may be seen as an injustice because those cases don’t go through to have a trial, but too much work is put into cases that the best option is to just put all the effort in the ones that will get a conviction. Those other cases that are seen as more serious because of prior record and the type of crime committed usually have a high going rate. Some crimes like murder are known to have higher going rate because of how…

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Courtroom Workgroups

    • 314 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Making changes to the courtroom work group is a good idea. Although, everyone is a key player, removing one of them could put a lot of people in harm’s way, wrongfully imprisoned, and make biased decisions. I would recommend that those that have never been a witness in a trial or that have never participated in courtroom proceedings, that the courtroom operations be explained to them so they would know what to…

    • 314 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are a number of individuals who make up the courtroom personnel. Each individual whether it be the judge, bailiff, court reporter, courtroom clerk, prosecutor, defense counsel, jury, defendant, or witness contribute to the shaping of legal law. The judge who presides over the trial has the ultimate authority in the courtroom. “The judge must see that the trail is conducted in an orderly manner according to prescribed rules and laws covering the selection of the jury, the presentation of evidence, the arguments of the lawyers, the instructions to the jury, and the rending of the verdict” (Arizona Judicial Branch, 2013, para. 1). Although the judge has the ultimate authority in the courtroom the bailiff is tasked with keeping order during trial or hearings. The bailiff announces entry of the judge, supervises the jury, and calls witnesses…

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Schmalleger, F. (2011). Criminal justice today: An introductory text for the 21st century (11th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall…

    • 1422 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Trial By Jury

    • 1319 Words
    • 6 Pages

    It isn’t arduous to see why some may question the efficiency of trial by jury and whether it should, and is able to, continue to discover innocence or guilt. Regarding the trial of Vicky Pryce, the failure of the jury within the hearing conjured ridicule and disdain from the judge and the media. The case deeply unsettled the trust of many in the system. The eight women and four men were dismissed after illustrating “fundamental deficits of understanding” (Jacobson, Hunter & Kirby, 2015, p. 55). Their profuse questions for the judge were deemed as unintelligent and unnecessary and so a costly re-trial was required. Consequently, this ordeal provoked a stronger desire for the abolition of trial by jury, to be replaced by a single judge as a more…

    • 1319 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jury Trial in Malaysia

    • 998 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A jury trial is a trial where a judge is helped by a jury which consists of several ordinary citizens whom are usually selected randomly and generally laymen. Usually the jury box consists of 12 people that will judge regarding the facts of a case. In a jury trial, the selections of the juries are called ‘voir dire’, where the judge or parties ask jurors questions in order to determine their biases and opinions. After the jury is chosen and sworn in, the parties shall give their opening arguments, present their evidence and give closing arguments. The jury then discusses the facts of the case and considers whatever deems necessary only to announce the verdict at the end. According to Ng Boon Siong in his article of “The Comparison of Trial by Jury and Trial without Jury in The Malaysian Legal System”, the jury trial was first introduced in Penang and Malacca and later extended by the first Prime Minister throughout the rest of Malaya states. After the last case of Mona Fandey then only it was realized that jury trials are not suitable to be applied in Malaysia. Several of those reason is that firstly, the jury trial are considered archaic and time consuming. Not to mention the difficulties of such common people (whom most of them does not have any legal knowledge) to understand fully the facts of the case which adds up the time taken for an acceptable and at least reasonable decision to be made. Besides that, most of the jurors are being doubtful most of the time during the trial. They decide solely based upon personal opinion rather than considering wholly on the evidences founded. For example in the case of Mona Fandey, biased opinions was obvious at that time because all of the jurors voted the defendant as guilty without considering some evidence which are in favour of the defendant side. Lastly, jurors are incapable and mostly afraid to bear the heavy burden of such big decision where a man’s life is at stake. However, it has been 15…

    • 998 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jury System in Hong Kong

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the first part, I will analyze the advantages of using jury trial in Hong Kong.…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Do Jurors Deliver Justice

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Undoubtedly, every system has its own merits and dismerits from different perspectives. Though, juries have their passionate defenders, including many lawyers, it is impossible to deny that in its present form jury has some great defects. At first, as long as the jurors are very slow, it impedes the judicial process. On the second hand, it’s very expensive partly because it is slow and happens in the crowncourt, which is an expensive tribunal, and it is surprisingly accident prone. Moreover, it’s inherent, I believe, putting 12 inexperienced people, which are selected completely at random from the population, and leaving them to decide without anyone toward watching them, without their guarantee to give any reasons for their decision at the end. Thus, it is abundant evidence, that this system has an obvious problem of quality control, which is vital, as it has to be maintained even at the risk of miscarriages of justice. Another problem about no jury reasons is that we don’t know at the end of the jury trial, whether the jury convicted on un/intelligible grounds for un/acceptable reasons. It is important to note that the jury gives no reason for its verdict of guilty or not guilty, no questions, which are permitted afterwards, that might…

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics