This column discusses the alarming decline of the number of trial lawyers practicing at the bar and the small number of new trial lawyers being trained. This trend is alarming because the trial lawyer is the strength of the common law system. No matter how successful settlement procedures work, it is essential that the bar have a substantial number of skilled trial lawyers to try a case in open court. We are operating with the restrictions of the COVID pandemic, and the number of trial lawyers is diminishing; this is war time, let us solve this problem.

The late U.S. District Court Judge William Dwyer (Western District, Washington) said, “The trial lawyer is the canary in the mine shaft of our democracy. Without it our people lose the right to do justice in court.” The trial lawyer is the stronghold of the freedom in the United States. This is important in both civil and criminal cases. Michael Engle, of Armstrong Teasdale, described the current problem with training trial lawyers. “It is extremely difficult for law firms to develop the skills of younger lawyers. The opportunity for lawyers to take cases to trial seems to diminish year after year with the proliferation of more alternative dispute resolution processes in the civil system and the expansion of diversion programs and other nontrial resolutions in the criminal process. Taking depositions is not a substitute for real trial experience. Truly the only way to get trial experience is to try a case before a judge or a jury.”

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