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Why do some trials last so long?

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  • Why do some trials last so long?

    An old school friend of mine, haven't seen him in years but have light contact on social media, is going on trial next year. He's charged with some consumer laws after a company he started was accused of some improper activity involving a few million dollars. The trial is set to last for 6 weeks. I understand there's going to be a lot of financial records to explain, but as far as I know there's not many witnesses. 6 weeks seems like a really long time, why so long?

  • #2
    White collar fraud cases typically take a long time, both to get to the trial date and for the trial itself. The U.S. federal system moves along fairly quickly though - much faster than state.

    Right now with coronavirus going on all trials in the U.S. have been delayed since about April 2020, and are just now starting to resume, with a huge backlog. Laws were passed to not count the days against speedy trial statutes due to the pandemic, thereby averting constitutional and statutory dismissals for failure to proceed quickly.
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    • #3
      Originally posted by Modee View Post
      White collar fraud cases typically take a long time,
      Why? I could understand if there were a huge number of witnesses all requiring cross examining for days on the stand. But white collar you're mostly looking at pages of documents, here's the evidence in black and white.

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      • #4
        You mention documents - all evidence has to have a foundational basis - unless stipulated by both sides, it can't just be introduced into the record. Typically lots of witnesses are required just to introduce evidence and lay the basis for its admission. And then you might have experts on both sides interpreting the documents, plus testimony from those affected as to what it means.
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