Criminal Law-Discovery
In some criminal prosecutions, pretrial discovery may be allowed. The discovery that is allowed in a criminal case is considerably more limited than what is allowed in a civil case. In a civil case, the prevailing philosophy is that a full disclosure of the facts and full discovery of the strong points and weak points of the other party’s case is desirable in order to allow the parties to make an intelligent decision as to whether the case should be settled and, if so, how much it should be settled for. In the area of criminal law, the prevailing philosophy is that too much discovery is not a good thing because the information gathered by the defendant could conceivably be used to intimidate witnesses and to otherwise bog down the criminal justice system. As such, the amount of discovery allowed in a criminal case is typically limited compared to what is allowed in a civil case.
The amount of discovery allowed in a criminal case is typically limited.
