Causes and Consequences of Lengthy Court Delays

The American justice system is prone to sometimes lengthy delays when trying court cases. The defendant and the defendant's attorney cause some of these delays, but many have come up because of an overload of cases for many court systems. These delays also lead to several, very negative consequences that can mean some cases do not get tried or do not get enough work before they are taken to court. Most of these delays could be avoided altogether or at least minimized with some reform within the judicial side of the justice system. The three questions that must be asked to discuss these topics are:
1. What are the causes of these delays?
2. What are the consequences of these delays?
3. What could be reformed to reduce these delays?
This essay will focus on answering these three questions with regard to the American court system.

What are the causes of these delays?

One cause for delay of trial involves the preparation that must go into a case, on the part of the lawyer, before it is ready for trial. Overbooked courts are also an issue, because if there are too many cases they simply cannot all be fit into the same day. Another issue that causes sometimes lengthy delays in court cases is that of public prosecutors who have too many cases and not enough time or staff to take care of all of them in a timely fashion. Before court cases even begin, however, lawyers are able to make a number of motions that add more time to pre-trial actions. The motion that is most obviously a cause of court delays is the Motion of Continuance, which allows a defendant to choose to wait to go to trial until a later date (Burick-Hughes, 2007, JUST 2005 notes). The last major causes of court delays are appeals. According to page 243 of Criminal Justice in Action: The Core, appeals are an opportunity for the accused to seek a higher court's ruling when they feel their trial was unfair and/or mishandled (Gaines & Miller, 2006, p. 243).

What are the consequences of these delays?

All of these causes can easily lead to a delay in justice or continued headaches for many citizens who become involved in the court system for whatever reason. The preparation that can cause delays before court can begin is not necessarily a negative; many would argue that any negatives are easily surpassed by the positives. This preparation time is also already limited by the Speedy Trial Act of 1974 (Gaines & Miller, 2006, p.232). The issue of overbooked courts, however, can lead to a mishandling of cases and a lack of true justice since the judges' decisions can be hurried. Judges may not always be allowed enough time to make an informed, just decision, which leads to more appeals. Since public prosecutors can easily be overloaded not all, or even most, cases go to court. The only cases that are sure to be tried and well prepared are those that are high profile; either because of the nature of the crime or the societal status of those persons involved. Since defendant's lawyers may bring so many different motions, judges' decisions must occasionally be too quick and not entirely considered. The Motion of Continuance especially can cause lengthy court delays, which often leads to witnesses moving away from the area and forgetting details of the incident (Burick-Hughes, 2007, JUST 205 notes). Appeals, at any level, take time and can clog the court system with paperwork that is essentially unnecessary and just causes more congestion in a system that needs nothing of the sort. All of these causes lead to a constant clog of the American justice system, making it harder and harder for defendants to receive a speedy trial as required by the 6th Amendment to the Constitution.

What can be reformed to reduce these delays?

Some of the delays mentioned in this paper could be fixed or at least shortened, with some reform across the court systems. The first cause of delays addressed, that of preparation time, does not need to be reformed because it must follow a set timeframe and seems to work. Appointing more judges and figuring out a more efficient method of scheduling could help the issue of overbooked courts. More cases could be tried by the public prosecutor's office if the individual prosecutors were able to delegate more responsibilities and if more offices were created. Currently there are just over 8,000 offices for the entire United States (Gaines & Miller, 2006, p.207). The problem of motions, especially that of continuance, could be helped by limiting the number of continuances allowed and shortening the length of each continuance. Appeals could be limited fairly simply, by limiting the number of appeals and making sure each appeal is actually warranted. If these changes were made the American justice system could be streamlined and still protect the rights of both the accused and the accuser, but allow those working in the court system to do a better job and deal with less stress.

References
Burick-Hughes, Margie. (29 March 2007). Class notes and discussion.
Gaines, Larry K. & Roger LeRoy Miller. (2006). Criminal Justice in Action: The Core. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.