Many defense lawyers are complaining that the "pretrial clarification procedures" that took effect last Nov. 1 in an effort to speed up criminal trials is leaving them with insufficient time to prepare and foreclosing on chances to introduce new evidence.
The legal process from initiation of a trail until the verdict and sentence takes much longer than in most industrialized nations, and has long been a target of criticism.
Criminal trials of the first instance usually last at least one year, and criminal trial lawyers' are lower than those for civil suits.