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Sunday, February 13, 2011

Courts - "Where Have You Gone, Atticus Finch?"

Ashby Jones at WSJ Law Blog wrote Friday:

Where have you gone, Atticus Finch? And you, Perry Mason? What about Clarence Darrow and F. Lee Bailey and Gerry Spence?

Of course, there are still famous trial lawyers out there, masters of the opening statement and the cross-examination. David Boies; John Keker; Ted Wells; Mark Lanier; Cris Arguedas, to name a few.

But the truth is that fewer and fewer cases go to trial these days, so a dwindling number of lawyers are making livings in the courtroom. Click here for a story on the trend, from the Tennessean.

The well-worth-reading story, from Brandon Gee, begins:
NASHVILLE — Lawyers Bob Walker and John Branham remember a time when they would argue multiple trials in a week — if not a day.

These days they're lucky to have more than one trial a year.

The trend of settling disputes through alternative means rather than going through a jury trial has been going on for about two decades and continued last year, according to recently released court statistics.

Avoiding trials saves litigants time and money — a big selling point, particularly for risk-averse businesses in tough economic times. But many lawyers worry that grizzled trial veterans such as Branham and Walker are an endangered species and that the jury trial is vanishing.

Her inability to participate in the trials she loved was a key reason Nancy Jones left Bass Berry & Sims' office in 2007 to lead the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility.

"What it really boiled down to is, when you wake up in the morning, and you haven't had a trial in nine years, can you look at yourself in the mirror and call yourself a trial lawyer?" she said.

U.S. District courts had 5,325 civil and criminal jury trials in 2008, down from 6,839 in 2000 and 9,844 in 1990. Tennessee jury trials in state civil courts were down by 1,000 from 2000 to 384.

Todd Campbell, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, said the lack of jury trials is not only a concern for lawyers and firms but also the general public.

"I'm not part of that new-age, touchy-feely, let's-all-hug-and-arbitrate (mindset)," Campbell said. "There's an important social function to people having an open forum to air their grievances in a democracy."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 13, 2011 12:40 PM
Posted to Courts in general