1- you are a member of a state bar association panel on the role of lawyers in the court system. You have been asked to address a number of issues in a presentation to lay members of the public. Why is it sometimes said that prosecutors have more power than judges in a criminal case? Is this right? How can this discretion be abused? Should plaintiffs' lawyers in civil cases be allowed to solicit clients? Why or why not? Should judges have life terms? What are the advantages and disadvantages of this? What mechanisms are there or could there be to ensure that judges with life terms remain ethical and competent during their long tenures? Are contingency fee arrangements good policy or bad? Should indigent litigants in civil cases be provided with free counsel? Should the legal process for bringing tort actions be reformed? How and why?

2- you are the criminal justice advisor to the governor of the state of chaos. She is concerned that dangerous individuals might be released into society after being acquitted by reason of insanity. By the same token, she has compassion for the mentally ill. She wants you to advise her on a topic that she is not very familiar with. What is the rationale behind the insanity defense; i.e., why are individuals not guilty, or not responsible, by reason of insanity? What are the legal definitions of insanity? Should the defense be eliminated entirely? Should it be reformed? If so, how? Does it make sense to find defendants not responsible for a crime but to punish them for it, as some have proposed? Did Ralph tortoise receive justice? If not, who was responsible, and how should the case have been handled differently and by whom?