Equal Justice Under Law? What I Learned in California Courtrooms

People often ask what motivated my transition from trial work to appellate work. The honest answer is complicated. During my years practicing as a trial lawyer in Los Angeles, Solano, and Sacramento Counties, and in federal court, I saw patterns that showed me why post-conviction advocacy matters.

First: workload shapes outcomes. Prosecutors and defense attorneys often carry heavy caseloads and spend much of the day in court. When everyone is overloaded, the system can start to prioritize speed and closure over careful, individualized decision-making. “Justice” begins to look like efficiency.

Second: discretion is often limited. In many offices, prosecutors have little freedom to deviate from policy without supervisory approval. That can make negotiations feel less about the facts and law and more about internal rules and time pressure.

Third: delay is not neutral. California sets time limits for key stages, but local practice and calendar congestion can lead to significant delays. Delay affects preparation, leverage, custody status, and families, and it can pressure people into choices they would not make in a better-resourced system.

Finally, the ideal that “justice is blind” remains just that—an ideal. In my experience, courtrooms can be inhospitable environments for attorneys of color and for people of color more broadly. I also witnessed the ways clients of color were treated differently, and how assumptions about who “looks like” a criminal can surface in subtle but consequential ways.

Post-conviction work—appeals, habeas corpus, resentencing, and Racial Justice Act litigation—exists because legal error happens, bias happens, and the law evolves. Sometimes the only meaningful review occurs after the trial is over, when someone finally has the time and space to examine the record closely and insist that constitutional rules apply to everyone.

Disclaimer: This post is for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.