Comments on: Reciprocal Criminal Discovery, Or, What Was That Story Doing In My Sunday Times? http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2006/04/reciprocal_crim.html The Law, the Universe, and Everything Sun, 22 Nov 2009 04:22:46 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.3 hourly 1 By: Maryland Conservatarian http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2006/04/reciprocal_crim.html/comment-page-1#comment-59736 Maryland Conservatarian Tue, 04 Apr 2006 09:34:43 +0000 http://www.solove.org/archives/2006/04/reciprocal-criminal-discovery-or-what-was-that-story-doing-in-my-sunday-times.html#comment-59736 "Most defense lawyers have no discovery to provide the DA. They often lack the time, the will and the resources to conduct serious investigations." I don't disagree although personal experience would accentuate lack of time (usually the client's fault for not bringing the case to you earlier) and lack of reason - there is nothing out there to discover. But I also think the lack of time could be applied to the prosecution. They are often just thrilled to have their witnesses show up for court and, for most cases, simply don't have the time to prep them before trial. My experience is that the prosecution would probably use such information to better assess the reliability of their witnesses - not to coach them. “Most defense lawyers have no discovery to provide the DA. They often lack the time, the will and the resources to conduct serious investigations.”

I don’t disagree although personal experience would accentuate lack of time (usually the client’s fault for not bringing the case to you earlier) and lack of reason – there is nothing out there to discover.

But I also think the lack of time could be applied to the prosecution. They are often just thrilled to have their witnesses show up for court and, for most cases, simply don’t have the time to prep them before trial. My experience is that the prosecution would probably use such information to better assess the reliability of their witnesses – not to coach them.

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