POL 250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Bench Trial, Jury Trial, World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition
Document Summary
A pretrial conference is a meeting of the parties to a case conducted prior to trial. The conference is held before the trial judge or a magistrate, a judicial officer who possesses fewer judicial powers than a judge. A pretrial conference may be held prior to trial in both civil and criminal cases. A bench trial is a trial by judge as opposed to a trial by jury. The term applies most appropriately to any administrative hearing in relation to a summary offence, so as to distinguish as to the type of trial. Bench trials usually take less time than jury trials because the attorneys do not need to go through the jury selection and instruction process. In a jury trial, a jury composed of members of the community is present at the trial to act as the finder of fact.