Perspectives and Practices of Defense Lawyers in Criminal Cases

• NCJ Number: 70634
• Author(s): J A Gilboy
• Date Published: 1976
• Length: 178 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Northwestern University
• Sale Source: UMI Dissertation Services
• Publication Type: Thesis/Dissertation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS. Northwestern University - doctoral dissertation

Annotation

This study of criminal defense lawyers, conducted between 1972 and 1975 in the State criminal courts in Chicago, provides a description and analysis of criminal defense lawyers at work in these courts.

Abstract

It focused on their work in felony criminal cases, and was primarily concerned with 'sequential representation' (the participation of more than one lawyer in the defense of a case over time) and with 'long-range perspective' (a lawyer's vision of his work which transcends the stage at which he is working) as it appears in branch court representation, particularly in connection with bail hearings, preliminary hearings, and motions to suppress evidence. The principal research techniques were the longitudinal participant observation of criminal defense lawyers and their cases; interviews with these and other criminal defense lawyers; and an analysis of defendant's files, judges' daily court sheets, and official court statistics. Findings indicate that the defense of criminal felony cases is often provided in a segmented fashion. Statistics suggest that over three-fifths of the felony cases reaching the trial courts are represented by different lawyers in the branch and trial courts. Moreover, sequential representation involves both indigent and nonindigent defendants. Also, the long-range perspective of lawyers instills a sense of responsibility as to the impact of their work and is essential to the preparation of a case which spans many months and various stages of the criminal process, as well as often passing through the hands of more than one practitioner. In examining whether the potential for cooperation between lawyers is realized when a criminal felony case is represented by more than one lawyer, it is important to remember that the actual degree of cooperation among branch and trial lawyers is also related to the reality of other features of legal work. Thus, where contacts between defendants and branch lawyers are limited to the day of appointment, or where little out-of-court investigation is believed to have taken place at the branch level, the trial lawyer will not expect anything useful to arise out of contacting the branch lawyer, and cooperation is unlikely to develop. Footnotes, tables, and over 60 references are included.