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Brooklyn DA addresses shortage of experienced trial lawyers and its effect on case delays
6:18:49
ยท
106 sec
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez discusses the impact of a lack of experienced trial lawyers on case processing:
- Shortage of mid-level and senior prosecutors with significant trial experience
- Success in hiring young law graduates, but lack of seasoned attorneys
- Similar issues faced by public defenders in retaining experienced staff
- Increase in case volume (15% year-over-year) without corresponding increase in court resources
- Example: Brooklyn had only one trial judge available in local criminal court for two years post-COVID
Eric Gonzalez
6:18:49
Yeah.
6:18:50
And I would say what D.
6:18:52
A.
6:18:52
Bragg said earlier today resonates deeply as well.
6:18:57
There's a lack of experienced trial lawyers in prosecutors' offices at the level.
6:19:05
We've been very successful in hiring young law graduates to fill in primarily in criminal court, but that mid level senior prosecutor who has 10 trials under their belt knows what they're doing is more rare than it used to be.
6:19:24
And I think that that also helps delay it.
6:19:28
Sure you will hear from our public defenders.
6:19:30
But I know that they are also struggling in having their career people stay on with everything that they have to go through.
6:19:40
And so there's a real moment in time where we just need everyone to come together and really, you know, in the state budget as well to provide resources for our courts.
6:19:53
One last thing I'm gonna say just to put it by perspective.
6:19:57
We already said that Brooklyn has the largest intake.
6:20:00
I went two years with only one trial judge in my local criminal court.
6:20:05
I had one judge available to do trials for two years after COVID.
6:20:11
That is a system that obviously with, you know, 60,000 criminal court arrests cannot work.
6:20:19
I also point out that year after year, the last three or four years in a row, Brooklyn has had about a 15% increase year after year in new arrests.
6:20:30
So the volume is up.
6:20:32
But there has been no investment made by the state in our courts.