The Sixth Amendment guarantees “the right to a speedy and public trial.” In many white-collar criminal cases, though, the judicial process might be public, but it is not always speedy.
“White-collar cases are fundamentally different from conventional trials,” says Abbe Lowell of McDermott, Will & Emery. “The government’s ability to prove, say, a murder, is far more direct than even the least complex of white-collar cases.”
The discovery process, especially when it involves electronic documents, can slow proceedings. Lowell recounts a legal case in which he was brought to a warehouse that contained millions of documents: “It’s a painstaking and slow process.”
Corporate cases often involve multiple defendants, which swells pretrial proceedings. And these types of defendants can generally afford better and more attorneys, who sometimes find it advantageous to try to push back the trial date.
The impact of a drawn-out trial is a mixed bag for the accused, says Charles Stillman of Stillman, Friedman & Schectman.
“In one sense, a delayed case can have a terrible effect on the accused party’s reputation,” says Stillman. “But the defense also wants there to be a calm, cool, deliberative process that gives the defendant a fair chance at justice, and that’s why these cases drag on for so long.