Courtroom Work Group Essay

Words: 1433
Pages: 6

Courtroom Work Group
There are many parts of the courtroom and the process of convicting a criminal. The courtroom work group has a major role in convicting and finalizing a case. In the courtroom work group, there are three groups of people that hold the entire courtroom together. Without the work group, the courtroom would not flow, and coming to a conclusion to the case would not be as easy. The work group is made up of the Judge, the Defense Counsel and the Prosecution. They work together to reach a result, in the case by staying in contact on a daily basis. There are many roles in the work group, and if they are not all followed through with then the results could be different than what they should be. In this paper, we will
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Most prosecutors will not take a case unless there is a substantial amount of evidence to ensure a conviction. If the crime is a minor offense, and the suspects admit guilt, the prosecutor will impose the fine ("American Bar Association", 2014).
The criteria for taking a case has to be a fair balance between doing a proper investigation to ensure you have enough evidence to prosecute and making sure the courts are not overwhelmed with cases that should never be pursued. Making the criteria more stringent would possibly benefit the criminal by prosecutors and police having to produce too much evidence in order to go to trial. Making the criteria less stringent would overwhelm the court system with too many cases and cost the tax payer and put a burden on the state trial budget.

The Criminal Justice Funnel Our justice system is sometimes referred to as “Assembly line justice." The case load of a typical judge is so overwhelming that the judge does not have the ability to give the necessary amount of time to each defendant that comes before the court. This is the origin of the funnel effect in our criminal justice system. Every day we see traffic stops, citations, and arrests being made, but not all of them spend a significant amount of time in our criminal justice system. As these cases move along, many are eliminated through fines or plea deals. Plea deals allow the courts to free up the