In My Opinion

Media speculation that employers can no longer monitor their employees’ communications is misleading and unhelpful, writes Siân McKinley

Kevin Dent admires the determination & commitment of the US attorney

As the Legal Year opens after its long vacation, Ian Glen QC examines the holidaying realities for most practitioners

On 31 July I appeared in front of a proper High Court Judge. 

The world has watched over the past several months as Oscar Pistorius has been tried for the murder of Reeva Steenkamp. Sean Middleton reports.

Debates have ranged far and wide over Oscar’s innocence or guilt, and whether he should be found guilty of murder or culpable homicide. With the verdict now in hand we all know that it is one of culpable homicide (manslaughter). Much criticism has been levelled against both Counsel and the Bench over the course of the proceedings and there seem to be more critics than legal experts.

For the past twenty-five years, I have made my living as a trial lawyer, plying my trade in courtrooms throughout Texas (and elsewhere), defending individuals and businesses in civil litigation. But the trials have become fewer and farther between in recent years; in Dallas, where I am based, only 1,195 district court jury trials were held in 2011—just one-third the number that occurred in 1996. And it’s not because people have become less litigious, either. During the same time period, the number of lawsuits filed rose 25%. Throughout Texas, from 1986 to 2008, civil jury trials in state courts fell by 60%. For the fiscal year 2012 alone, only 0.4% of civil cases were resolved by a jury or directed verdict in Texas courts.

This is not a problem unique to Texas, but instead is a national phenomenon. Most states report similarly precipitous declines in jury trials, and in 2010, only 2,156 civil jury trials were commenced in federal district courts—meaning that, on average, U.S. district court judges tried fewer than four civil jury trials each that year.