Casinos and Used Car Sales: The Criminal Justice System

The Courts, Part 2 of 12

I like to tell clients that the Criminal Justice System is more like the odds in a casino and negotiated like used car sales. The odds are stacked against the player and the used car salesman has to sell to make a commission.

To explain this, let’s look at the numbers so the client understands how the roulette wheel of justice turns.

There are twenty criminal courts in Tarrant County, Fort Worth, Texas. Ten Felony courts and ten Misdemeanor Courts. For this example, Federal and Municipal Courts are not included.

If each court has 1000 cases pending at any given time, and every day, people are arrested, charged and have cases filed and added to a Courts’ caseload. And the Courts have an obligation to resolve the cases pending, one way or another.

On average, a criminal court can only conduct about 25 Jury Trials in a year. This is because, besides Jury Trials, a court has administrative and many other matters that also must be managed. Also, there are holidays, vacations, and one week per month there are no jury trials.

So, when a Court actually conducts a Jury Trial, it is serious business and significant resources are used to guarantee an accused Due Process and Equal Protection of the law.