The past few days have been spent preparing for trial.  Research.  Review of documents, statements, grand jury testimony, police reports, you name it.  Every paper parsed for the 5th time.  I’ve run through my opening, the issues, the phraseology of key questions.  The theme of the defense is fully developed and ready to go.  Trial to start Thursday.  And then…

The dreaded telephone call from the prosecutor. A young fellow.  Very polite, and frankly a very likable guy.  I’ve asked him to call me Scott a dozen times, but he still calls me Mr. Greenfield.  I can’t break him of his terminal manners.

“Mr. Greenfield, we won’t be ready for trial.”

“And why would that be?”

“One of my cops is going on vacation next week and won’t be available”

Well, I certainly wouldn’t want that to happen.

“And you didn’t know this when you asked, two weeks ago when the People weren’t ready, to adjourn the trial to this Thursday?”

“Uh…no.”

Now any lawyer who tries criminal cases will tell you that this conversation has been had about a zillion times.  There is absolutely nothing remarkable about it.  But…

My client had worked himself into a frenzy in anticipation of trial.  He was, to put it mildly, freaking out.  Now, with all due respect (which is lawyerspeak for “you idiot”), he’s neither the most stable nor intelligent of fellows, but the anticipation of a criminal trial can break even the strongest of men.  The stakes are high.  Years in prison if you lose, or an ecstatic walk out of the courthouse into the waiting arms of your family if you win. 

I call my client to inform him that there will be no trial this time.  He’s deflated.  He’s depressed.  He’s almost crying.  He can’t take it anymore, the high and the low, the waiting and then the rushing.  All the sternness about being there on time, following the rules, being prepared.  Yet it only seems to apply to him, with the prosecution immune from any responsibility to the court to be there and be prepared.

Is it right?  No, but right has never played any role in the real world of criminal law.  We want it to, and we wish it did.  The other side doesn’t see it as a problem of right or wrong at all, but mere logistics coupled with being too busy to attend to all the details.  After all, putting bad guys in jail can be a lot of work.  And there’s a lot of bad guys. 

Or as the pat response to the defense generally goes, if your client doesn’t like the way the system works, tell him to stop committing crimes.  I can’t tell you how many times, and variations, of this cute yet trite statement have been uttered in the courthouse.  I felt badly for my client, knowing how waiting for the outcome of this trial was ripping his heart out.  But not badly enough that I forgot to remind him that there is a balance remaining on my trial fee.  At least he’ll have a few more weeks to get it together.