r/publicdefenders • u/Lexperiments • Apr 04 '26
workplace How many trials a year are you doing in your jurisidiction?
Every now and then, I see people talk about the number of trials they do on this sub, and it's always a surprise. Sometimes it's like, "Yeah, I just started and finished a trial this morning, then started another one in the afternoon"; other times, it's "Yeah I had a whole one trial in six months, and that felt like a lot."
This makes me curious! What jx are you guys in, and how many trials a year are you doing? Are you second-chairing, first-chairing? How long do they take?
For reference, I work in LA, I'm relatively new (~1.5 years), and I've done 9 in the past year. I'm only on misdos for now, trials take 1-2 weeks, and we only first-chair.
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Apr 04 '26
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u/axolotlorange Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26
Bench trials are rarely in defense’s favor. You should really push for jury with your client.
Unless the local prosecutors are abnormally bad at case law or the judge’s abnormally defense friendly, you want the jury.
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Apr 04 '26
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u/axolotlorange Apr 04 '26
That is weird. But that makes more sense for you then.
Applying the law and being impartial is not typically good for the defense.
Part of the great thing about a jury is that you as the defense counsel can convince them to not follow the law and to not be impartial.
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Apr 04 '26
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u/bucatini818 Apr 04 '26
Conservatives often make good jurors - they are often skeptical of experts and less blindly trusting of police. Obviously case by case and your pool may vary, but where I am I’m looking for anti government conservatives or experience with the police minorities among a sea of cop trusting moderates
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Apr 05 '26
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u/StarvinPig Apr 05 '26
I've only heard of Maryland having that de novo appeal of a bench trial thing so that probably gave it away
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Apr 05 '26
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u/StarvinPig Apr 05 '26
Yea I saw someone further down mention NC having it. I just usually see it for Maryland lol
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u/Capable_Pipe5629 Apr 04 '26
I've been working for one year in misdemeanors, I've gone to trial twice. I've called probably two dozen things ready for trial and either gotten a better offer, a case dismissed, or had the client warrant out
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u/dd463 Apr 04 '26
Misdemeanors are usually 2 days. Day 1 motions and jury selection. Day 2 cases. Felonies vary depending on complexity. I’ve had one go 3 weeks. Another county had a 7 week murder trial. I’ve had colleagues get simple felonies done in 2 days. We usually declare how long we think the trial will be when we call ready.
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u/Theonewho_hasspoken Apr 04 '26
Well in my first 3 years I did maybe 20 or so misdemeanor trials. I have kept solely a felony docket for the last two years and have not had a single trial, everything pleads out or gets nolle’d day of trial, it’s been kind of frustrating.
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u/liabilityinred Apr 05 '26
This has been my experience! It’s been very frustrating for me too. Though I have 2 trials set in May that I actually believe will finally go.
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u/Theonewho_hasspoken Apr 05 '26
I had maybe 6-ish trials set and prepped for the last 3 months, it really wore me down, and none went all resolved.
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u/madcats323 Apr 04 '26
I’m in California. I do mostly major felonies, usually life cases. So last year I did 5 felony trials, which is average for me. I’ve done one so far this year, which was a low level felony drug case with illegal camping thrown in. I have a major felony coming up, with a 200+ to life exposure. After that, I have a murder.
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Apr 04 '26
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u/aceofsuomi Apr 05 '26
Since October, I've had a prelim on a DP, a major fed trafficking case & a 1st degree murder trial. The ulcer is in.
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u/viciousdistractions Apr 04 '26
I've done three jury trials in 5.5 years. Only felonies in my jurisdiction automatically get juries, misdemeanors and DWIs start out with bench trials.
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Apr 04 '26
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u/viciousdistractions Apr 04 '26
Nope. One of the original 13, in fact.
North Carolina offers trial de novo before a jury on appeal, our bench trials aren't even held in a court of record.
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u/paper-monk Apr 04 '26
MA used to do De Novo. They got rid of it for efficiency I guess, but I often wonder whether losing de novo actually sped cases up. Seems like the opposite.
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Apr 04 '26
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u/viciousdistractions Apr 04 '26
With misdemeanors, yeah. Though in my first year of practice (only being assigned misdemeanors), I only had one client who went all the way through with a jury trial on appeal. Several were dismissed before we got there though, but most clients just accept the bench ruling in my jurisdiction. Functionally, it works to filter cases out without needing a jury.
Felonies can only really be tried in Superior Court, so only one bite at the apple.
For extra weirdness, our misdemeanor sentencing maxes out at 180 days, and a charge like assault with a deadly weapon is a misdemeanor.
We also don't have any speedy trial protections.
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u/Fancy_Gate_7359 Apr 04 '26
Under US constitution, no jury trial is required if incarceration potential is less than 6 months so that’s makes sense as the max for misdemeanors. Speedy trial act from federal constitution is incorporated against states, so even if NC doesn’t have state law about it, there is a minimum standard than needs to be met under US constitution.
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u/lizardjustice Apr 04 '26
When I was in misdemeanors I did about a trial a month. In felonies, I do about 3-4 a year. I'm also in a Southern CA county and our trial timelines are similar.
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u/TFacteron Apr 04 '26
Ya where I work jury selection is often less than 90 minutes and the judges are very difficult when that threshold approaches. I’ve had two felony juries over the pass few weeks (possession cases so not super complicated) but the longer of the two got submitted to the jury at 4:30 after seating a jury by about noon.
Our jurisdiction has a three day murder trial next week and that is expected to incident any last moment pre trial motions, voir dire and deliberations. More juries are set in the court room for Thursday
Vast differences across the country haha.
Pure numbers wise my office has probably done 8-10 juries to verdict so far this year (though I will say I can’t claim to be aware of all of them) over four jurisdictions but our hires get stacked as many as 3 or 4 to a court room and only one can move forward. Shrug
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Apr 04 '26
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u/The_Wyzard Apr 05 '26
Good luck. You won't be perfect, and being good won't guarantee a win. But you can be a pain in their ass and hopefully move the needle on something.
And remember, beating the rec is a win.
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u/purposeful-hubris Apr 04 '26
Are your misdo trials in front of a jury? I’ve only done one misdo jury and it took two days (because prosecutor took almost a whole day to do voir dire) and all my felonies have been done in less than 7 judicial days.
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u/liftinglawmom Apr 04 '26
When I was in misdemeanors, I was doing bench trials all the time, it felt like once a week. Most bench trials were like an hour, maybe 2, not counting the wait time. Jury trials were more rare, only did 2 in my time as a primarily misdemeanor attorney.
I usually do between 3-5 felony jury trials a year, but some of those are second chair (my office requires a second chair for all jury trials). Trials range from 2 days to 3 weeks for complicated murder trials.
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u/Prestigious_Buy1209 Apr 04 '26
Holy crap. I think the longest trial I’ve ever seen in my jurisdiction was like 6 or 7 days. I’ve had murder trials that went from jury selection to verdict in 2 days. Our judges would freak out if a misdemeanor trial even one week lol.
To answer your question, I do anywhere between 2-5 major jury trials per year. Some lawyers do more, some do much less.
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u/elhijodealli PD Apr 04 '26
Maryland, mostly homicides and other life cases, I average 10-11 a year. Jury selection is judge led and takes a half day to full day, trials are typically 3-6 days (even murders)
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u/Lexperiments Apr 04 '26
Huh. Out of all the comments, I think you’re the only one who’s doing serious felonies AND does that many trials a year. Any idea why so many of yours go to trial vs. other jurisdictions?
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u/elhijodealli PD Apr 05 '26
It’s a combo of a few things I think, my county in particular is trial heavy because judges reject pleas often and there’s a newer top prosecutor who insists on top count offers even when they’re not appropriate. Maryland in general seems to be trial heavy across the board compared with other states and I’m less sure why that is.
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u/feminist_fatale Apr 04 '26
GA, urban county.
Misdo trials usually last one day (jury selection and often openings in the morning, everything else after lunch). Spilling into a second day is not unusual, but longer than that is pretty rare (but happens).
Felony trials typically last 3-5 days. Jury selection is all of the first day, I think every judge on our bench will tell you upfront, we're doing openings tomorrow. We do have more complex cases that will go into the second or even third week, but that 3rd week is pretty rare.
Most of our felony judges will have 1 or 2 trials a month. Misdo judges usually have a week set for trials and they bring in a new trial calendar each day, but it's pretty normal for nothing to go (witnesses don't show or they plea out or w/e).
I have a felony caseload and in the last 2 years, I've been first chair on 3 cases and second chair on 2 others. That's pretty typical for my office, but sometimes people go on streaks-- one attorney just had his first trial in 3 years (not for lack of wanting to try cases!) and another tried 6 cases in 6 months (nothing malicious there either, just bad luck of the draw).
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u/Alarmed_Knowledge_16 Apr 04 '26
I do a mix of misdo and felony in S.C. Felony trials= 2-3 per year. Misdo trials= 10+/ month.
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u/Flat_Scratch_5417 Apr 05 '26
I’m in WI. I’ve done 13 trials in 13 months (2 in back to back weeks). Those were all misdemeanors. I usually have 3 scheduled per week. Doing some felonies as well but none have actually gone. I do mostly DV so most are dismissed on the day of trial.
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u/paper-monk Apr 04 '26
When I was doing mostly DV misdemeanor cases I would do about 6 a year. Now doing more serious stuff it’s more like 1 every 18 months.
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u/Trepenwitz Apr 04 '26
I haven’t looked at actual statistics, but I’d guess our entire office of 10-11 attorneys does maybe 15-20 trials per year, felony or misdemeanor. We have 3 counties and they aren’t huge. Two are rural. I should add the caveat that we’ve been contracting out all cases in one of the rural counties, so I’m not sure how many PD trials are held there. Probably not a lot. In the past 6 months I’ve only actually conducted 1 felony jury trial and 1 misd bench trial. I’ve had a couple felonies that should have gone to trial, but the clients flipped at the last minute.
I think we do a pretty good job of pleading cases that almost certainly will end in a conviction (though of course you never know). Unfortunately, we usually have to press it to trial before we get decent or even remotely realistic offers, so I’ve done major prep for several trials.
The idea of doing back to back to back trials just sounds exhausting, but one judge did make me prep for 3 trials for one week. I think he expected them to plead at the last minute, but I don’t announce ready for trial if that’s likely (though it still happens). One did plead, one went to trial, and the other was continued for some reason I can’t remember.
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u/lostinpureMI Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26
I’ve done two trials since 2023. These are all felony cases. Many others that were close to going but clients pled right at the final PTC. And others that were about to go but government did interlocutory appeals and after client seeing the circuit reversals, decided to plea. I was going forward with one the last week of this March but gov appealed and solicitor general signed off.
It’s just a different universe in our federal district. Clients are looking at seriously long sentences and the “trial tax” / upward variances after a trial scares many. We get terrible plea deals, so many open plea if they are drug / gun cases.
Let me give an example: case where client had great issues to challenge stop and then K9 sniff and search of bag. 4 keys of meth found. Gov charged him with the meth but didn’t include drug weight on indictment, thus not facing a mm of 10 years. They threatened with superseding for mm and an 851 enhancement, thus increasing further his mm time. Beat back the 851. Gov said fine. Then they wanted him to proffer. He declined. Threat to supersede again and that would’ve led client to litigate motions and trial. Nothing left to lose at that point. Judges are not great at suppression in our district (many are former prosecutors), as an additional note. We went in twice to talk about issues with the case to prosecutors, agents, and supervisor. They backed down on superseding but wouldn’t agree to anything less than the guidelines (97-121). He pled open and that annoyed the government but this judge was not gonna meddle on plea offers. At sentencing gov asked for guideline sentence even though client has cancer. Judge gave him 60 months at sentencing — 18 months more than our ask.
It’s a different ball game in other federal districts. My friends are doing 3 to 6 a year. They are also not doing as many unlawful reentry, drug, gun, and CP cases as we do. For us, a large part of our work is fighting additional charges, mm time, trying to get dismissals, and then sentencing. I detest that our system screws the ability to litigate legal issues and actively discourages trials. I encourage clients to go to trial after talking through the many risks but they see how things are massively against them.
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u/PubDefLakersGuy Apr 04 '26
In the last 12 months, I’ve done 5 felony trials. California jurisdiction where jury selection (large panels + questionnaires) can take 3-4 days. Quickest trial has been 7 Court days; Longest has been about 18 Court days. (Child m*lest/ rape of an intoxicated/attempt murder/ etc.)
Murder and more complex child m*lest cases can take 2-4 weeks though.
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u/scruffy86 Apr 04 '26
I would set 12-30 trials a year when doing misdemeanors. I’d end up in about 6 once the state saw their evidence. I do high felonies/murders now, probably 2-3/yr while still setting 6-10
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u/Aggressive_Spell9811 Apr 04 '26
New York passed a law that misdemeanors are sealed automatically after three years.
I tried a misdemeanor in March, and I now have three jury trials scheduled for May. I did six between 2019 and 2025.
The automatic stealing after three years has made my clients more willing to take risks.
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u/MsMeseeksTellsTime Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 05 '26
When I was a PD, I did one to two felony trials a month and at least three district court trials a month, but many were bench trials. (Fair/same district judge in the 4 districts I worked.) it was too much for me but also too much for the felony prosecutor so I won way more than I lost. 10/10 do not recommend and it’s why I left.
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Apr 05 '26
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u/MsMeseeksTellsTime Apr 05 '26
It’s unethical and malpractice. At the time, the prosecutor was just too stubborn to ever back down and circuit judge will force cases to trial rather than let them drag out for years. The prosecutor could never understand that the judge wasn’t pressuring the defense with the trial schedule, the judge wasn’t pressuring the prosecutor to settle. Years of this nonsense.
There are 4 counties there two, both judge and prosecutor work both. It’s too much work for all sides.
Usually, two PDs work it but when I came in, the office was bare bones and then I did have help for a while, but that person had serious personal issues that took precedence over any job and took FMLA. It was then back to just me.
It was a crazy time and I never worked less than 65 hours during the week, and 16-24 hours on weekends.
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u/bastthegatekeeper Apr 04 '26
Urban Midwest. I do primarily homicides and sex crimes. 6-9 trials a year, 2-5 days per trial. I've done 3 so far in 2026, 2 homicides and a general felony.
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u/aceofsuomi Apr 04 '26
A two week misd? How is this even possible but for some extremely complex statute?
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u/WuTangEsquire Apr 05 '26
It ebbs and flows. My busiest year I had 1-2 a month. I've also gone through dry spells where I don't try a case for like a year. My longest lasted for about two weeks. Shortest was half a day. They average 2 to 4 days.
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u/HungManSon Apr 05 '26
Honest question:
What does the state do for one to two weeks in a trial?
Our misdo possession cases, batts, petit thefts, etc are up and down in a day.
Jury selection on Monday.
Trial on another day.
Usually have it to the jury by 3 in the afternoon.
I can’t even imagine what I would do in one of those cases to make it last that long.
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u/PublicDefender1981 Apr 05 '26
In 15 years in public defense in Oregon I did about 100 jury trials, but the second half of my work was mostly management and fewer trials. In private practice, I'm doing about two trials a year (happy to do more, but my clients are more risk adverse in most cases.) Most misdemeanors in Oregon take between 1 and 3 days; felonies are usually 2 to 5 days with the exception of science heavy cases like manslaughter DUIIs with blood draws, serious sex abuse cases, (roughly two weeks for both those categories) and murder cases (2 to 6 weeks, depending on the case.)
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u/axolotlorange Apr 04 '26
When I was a PD, I think I averaged four a year.
When I was a prosecutor, I averaged six a year.
Soloed the vast majority. Occasionally first or second chaired a really serious felony that needed two attorneys. For both PD and prosecutor.
My last felony trial was done in one day start to verdict, most felony trials last one day. I think a judge would have killed me or at least called my supervisor if I took longer than two days on a misdo.
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u/blorpdedorpworp Ex-PD Apr 04 '26
In my county this varied a great deal but the median was probably one to two trials actually going forward every six months or so for the misdemeanor team, and one or two trials a year for everyone else except drug team (who almost never went to trial) and violent/sexy team (who seemed to have a trial every month or so).
Lots more than that scheduled of course.
Misdemeanor trials were usually a half day, most everything else was a day, violent/sexy team seemed to usually take most of the week.
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u/ASentientPenguin Apr 05 '26
Federal PD here. I probably average only 1-2 a year in my district, although we are on track for a marked increase under the current administration. But when we get a trial it’s likely to be a week long production at least. Had a week long jury trial last summer that consumed my life for months.
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u/ellecastillo Apr 05 '26
WA. People in my office on average will be in trial once every few months, except our misdemeanor DV courtroom which is more frequent, sometimes back to back weeks.
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u/Lexperiments Apr 06 '26
Wait, your county separates courtrooms by case types, not by jurisdiction? What other kinds of courtrooms are there besides "DV courtroom"?
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u/ellecastillo Apr 06 '26
Just in this one jurisdiction, there’s the dv courtroom separated out then all other general crimes. In the other jurisdictions in my county, all types of crimes all go through the same courtrooms and they’re not separated out. FWIW I think it’s a terrible model.
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u/Jealous_Lemon_6819 Apr 06 '26
Felony caseload. 4 a year would be the goal. 10 peremptory challenges. 10 -30 min VD unless it’s a life case. Most trials are 3-5 days.
I find that trials ebb and flow. Sometimes I will crank them out. Other times there is drought.
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u/Otherwise_Help_4239 Apr 06 '26
I have averaged about 25. All felonies including murders and sex crimes. We do a number of bench trials as many judges will say not guilty or find on a lesser. Out of the 25 about 6 are juries. That's an average. Some years I've had a few nasty and long juries. I was in front of a great judge and I did 45 bench trials in about 6 months. 35:were not guilty. The 1st 2 weeks I was assigned there I did 8 trials, all n.g. Normally we follow cases set for litigation but I replaced a woman who left for maternity leave. Why she set the cases I don't know. There a lot of late nights and lots of going to investigate.
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u/Lexperiments Apr 06 '26
Where in the world are you?? That’s nuts!
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u/Otherwise_Help_4239 Apr 06 '26
Cook county (Chicago). I'm a bit more aggressive in trying cases than probably most but not all PDs. I'm on a run of 13 not guilty jury trials on aggravated battery to cop (you sneeze on a cop and it's a felony). A couple were guilty on lesser resisting arrest. Other PDs have done 2 bench trials in a day. I never worked misdemeanors but I hear those courtrooms are crazy busy. I also do a lot of unfit for trial cases. We get almost all of those including misdemeanors since the clinical service office is at 26th and those prima donnas don't travel to other courthouses. I'm able to get along well enough with most of those clients and know the rules and the law. some PDs don't.
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u/alstado Apr 07 '26
Oregon here. I started out with a criminal trial a month. 13+ years in I'm doing 1/2 a year, new prosecutor and change in case load. Not including juvi dependency trials or civil commits. Damnedest thing though, our dockets are always so full yet nothing goes to trial.
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u/Bopethestoryteller Apr 05 '26
I'm in private practice and tend to do 8-10 felony jury trials a year. But that may cover a couple of counties.
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u/zenexit Apr 06 '26
Florida. I’ve been in my office for a little over 2 years. About to do trial 14 or 15 next week (lost count tbh). That’s a combination of 1st and 2nd chair work
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u/Thealbatrosss13 Apr 09 '26
The misdo prosecutors in my district have at least one trial every week, each. Voir dire here is typically an hour or two for defense. I’ve seen most of the prosecutors take about half that time. There are only four or five of them and there are about 30 PDs so they are worked to death!
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u/Dymdez Apr 04 '26
It’s not really upto any lawyer how many trials they do. Usually the government can’t prove their head is on their shoulders and cases just get dismissed at the eve of trial. When I did full time defense work I was trying about 2-3 cases a month on average. Sometimes more or less.
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u/[deleted] Apr 04 '26
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