Courtroom Workgroup: What are the Job Requirements for this Individual? (Essay Sample)

 Course
Name
University
Courtroom Workgroup
A courtroom workgroup is made up of a judge, prosecutor and defense attorney. It is an informal arrangement. It deviates from the public consensus of how justice is achieved. The primary aim of courtroom workgroups is to process cases, and not to dispense justice. Courtroom workgroups are associated with plea bargaining. Defense attorneys usually propose less punishment for their clients. In this paper, the member of the courtroom workgroup I have chosen is a state judge.
A state judge is a distinguished attorney who previously was involved in politics and is pursuing a second career on the bench. Some state judges are not lawyers by profession. Such judges are usually elected to the posts they hold. Before becoming state judges, some served as prosecutors and trial lawyers, or even criminal defense attorneys. There are differences among the states regarding the court procedures. For example, the courts of a particular state are not required to follow the decisions of another state’s court.
For one to become a state judge, they must attend undergraduate school. Attending undergraduate school helps to prepare aspiring judges for careers in law. There is no specific major of study required for one to join law school after undergraduate studies. However, most law students hold degrees in economics, history, business or political science. One then proceeds to earn a law degree as a postgraduate student. This involves studying for three years at a law school approved by the American Bar Association to earn Juris Doctor Degrees. In the first year of law school the learners focus on basic law coursework and in the last two years they take elective classes in specialized topics. One must then sit for other exams so as to be admitted to the bar. For example, Multistate Bar Exam. After being admitted to the bar, one serves as an attorney. It is when one is working as a lawyer that they become elected or appointed as judges. A judge may be required to undergo more training at this juncture. These include attending training programs rolled out by American Bar Association or completing introductory training administered by the state (JIST., 2010).
The job requirements for a judge include being a citizen of the U.S.A. one must also be a licensed attorney at the time and a resident of the geographic area in which they want to work in. The judges are elected or appointed. The annual salary of a state judge ranges between $94,000 and $ 200,000.
Just like any other job, being a judge has its consequences. One of them is that a person’s personal life and the background becomes a topic for public scrutiny. A judge must also declare themselves as a member of a particular political party and engage in all its activities. This is time-consuming and involves a lot of money. The benefits of being a judge are that one is assured of serving fixed renewable terms for 4 to 6 years or even for 14 years. The other advantage is that judges receive health insurance and pension plans (Neubauer & Fradella, 2010. p. 188).
The most challenging part of this career is that one’s private life becomes a subject for public scrutiny. For exampl...