[speaker001:] well the the question was talking about the juries and um one of the things I thought about was on a lot of the drunk cases that they were having that especially for repeat offenders that um maybe there should be stiffer penalties for those people who come back again and again um so that um a judge I think would be the most appropriate person to uh to be able to sentence somebody since they do it over and over again every day
[speaker002:] right I I kind of agree with that because I think in some cases uh the jury may not even have the information about other crimes the person has committed
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] uh I I think that in some cases that's considered to prejudice the current case
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] so a a judge you're right should have the whole dossier of the criminal there and if they're judged guilty would probably be in a better prison position to give an appropriate uh sentencing
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah see I agree with you um one thing I heard was this where they have instead of going to the regular court they have a a mock court I mean it's supposed to be all legal and everything uh you go and you present your case the other side presents their case and you're done with it it's almost like the Night Court we see on TV um and um but it's not that we have uh such it didn't backlog or all of the uh the cases that are uh all ready pending
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] um so I that was one thing I thought about that would be really neat if we could do it that way
[speaker002:] in other words not not there would be some types of crimes for which you're not guaranteed a jury trial
[speaker001:] yes yes Now
[speaker002:] I I I don't there's there's a point on which we don't agree I would tend myself to say that we should continue to guarantee a jury trial for criminal cases anytime a anytime a
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] one of the parties wants one and I usually it's the defendant I guess that wants to have the jury hear the case
[speaker001:] um-hum sure
[speaker002:] so I'm I'm not out for streamlining things to the point where we uh take that you know that would require a change in the Bill of Rights I believe and so
[speaker001:] oh yes and and I wasn't I didn't mean that I I didn't mean that no because I mean gee whiz if I was uh uh didn't have that right you know not to have a jury that oh yes I would feel um
[speaker002:] oh oh okay
[speaker001:] you're right that my civil rights had been violated but I meant for some when both parties agreed that yes we're going to have a judge here we're not going to have a jury you know let's get it over with sort of like car accidents you know
[speaker002:] right well I think that's all ready possible I think that you can waive the right to a jury trial uh
[speaker001:] yeah right right
[speaker002:] yeah so I agree that that should be encouraged you know people should know that that's an option just in case they feel they have to have a jury trial but I think most lawyers do a pretty good job of making that evident to
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] to clients unless they feel they can you know tweak a jury into perhaps
[speaker001:] right giving a different sentence
[speaker002:] giving a different sentence or possibly if it's a civil case giving higher uh you know awards of money or something since usually the lawyers get a percentage of the the award
[speaker001:] um-hum the take right right
[speaker002:] yeah and I suspect it in cases like I guess we were supposed to be doing criminals though rather than civil is that right
[speaker001:] well I I it we're at liberty to to talk and and meander as long as it's all on the same theme um-hum
[speaker002:] yeah well uh um in the case of civil civil uh things I think maybe the the use of the jury is very often to the lawyer's advantage and I think that may be where jury use is overdone you know I mean there are cases where they could be settled maybe out of court a little more efficiently but the lawyers are really
[speaker001:] right right
[speaker002:] uh it's to their advantage to play to as big an audience as possible so uh I was wondering too if they were thinking about the judge making awards in civil cases
[speaker001:] um-hum uh-huh
[speaker002:] not just sentencing in in a criminal cases uh
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] I'm not so sure I'm in favor of that but I am in favor of it for criminal cases so there's a difference of my view there for those two
[speaker001:] right right yeah but well you can tell I haven't been in too many juries judges chambers or anything like that and well I was called once when I was nineteen and um
[speaker002:] have you ever had to serve jury duty uh-huh
[speaker001:] but I was doing so many other things that they took took pity on me and I was doing school and things like that they they let me out and I've never had to it since and that was almost twenty years ago
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh it it isn't sort of amazed me they first caught up with me for the first time in uh that would have been about uh twenty years too um uh just last year and
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] uh the case I heard was a criminal case and it seemed it really trivial it involved two bicycles we didn't do the sentencing the judge did
[speaker001:] um-hum huh
[speaker002:] so
[speaker001:] how interesting
[speaker002:] we'd we uh rendered a verdict and then the judge was the one to do the sentencing
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] and that was here in Wisconsin so I I don't know if that varies from state to state or if it varies