TEAMWORK IN THE COURTS [HAPPY 223RD ANNIVERSARY OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES]

To celebrate 223^rd anniversary of the Supreme Court of the United States, I want to blog about how teamwork plays an important part in safeguards in the justice system. I will post different resources from Wikipedia, some teamwork quotes and also give my thoughts. When I saw two movies, The A-Team and The Expendables and also watched a DVD on one of my favorite footballer, Diego Maradona, I decided to blog about teamwork.

The 1986 Argentina World Cup Winners

 

THE HISTORY OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES:

The following is a history of the Supreme Court of the United States, organized by Chief Justice. The Supreme Court of the United States is the only court specifically established by the Constitution of the United States, implemented in 1789; under the Judiciary Act of 1789, the Court was to be composed of six members—though the number of justices has been nine for almost all of its history, this number is set by Congress, not the Constitution. The court convened for the first time on February 2, 1790. Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States

The Roberts Court, October 2010 = Back row (left to right): Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen G. Breyer, Samuel A. Alito, and Elena Kagan. Front row (left to right): Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, Chief Justice John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg

JUDICIAL PANEL:

SOURCES: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_panel

A judicial panel is a set of judges who sit together to hear a cause of action, most frequently an appeal from a ruling of a trial court judge. Panels are used in contrast to single-judge appeals, and en banc hearings, which involves all of the judges of that court.

In the United States, most federal appellate cases are heard by three-judge panels. The governing statute, 28 U.S.C. § 46(c), provides:

Cases and controversies shall be heard and determined by a court or panel of not more than three judges (except that the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit may sit in panels of more than three judges if its rules so provide), unless a hearing or rehearing before the court en banc is ordered by a majority of the circuit judges of the circuit who are in regular active service.

Image Credit: © XPRESS / Ramachandra Babu

The court maintained the prosecution’s case was based only on the testimony of the child’s mother, with little evidence to back it. If you notice, the Dubai Criminal Courts have a panel of more than 4 judges.

Most trials in the United States District Courts are held before a single judge, but there are some circumstances where the trial itself is required to be held before a three judge panel. For example, 28 U. S. C. § 2284(a) states:

A district court of three judges shall be convened when otherwise required by Act of Congress, or when an action is filed challenging the constitutionality of the apportionment of congressional districts or the apportionment of any statewide legislative body.

A judicial panel of 6 judges in Saudi Arabia (Source: http://www.arabnews.com/taazir-death-verdicts-must-be-unanimous)

Typically, if the chief judge is a member of the panel, that person will chair the panel and call hearings to order; if the chief judge is not on the panel, this duty falls to the senior-most judge. Following oral arguments, the judges will meet briefly to confer and determine what the likely majority opinion in the case will be. If the judge who chairs the panel is in the majority at this time, that judge may assign the writing of the opinion for that case.

Some bodies, such as the British leasehold valuation tribunal, may have judicial functions carried out by a single member. Although most cases consists of a panel of three; one with a background in property law (generally a solicitor); one with a background in property valuation generally a qualified surveyor; and a layman.

TEAMWORK:

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teamwork

Teamwork is "work done by several associates with each doing a part but all subordinating personal prominence to the efficiency of the whole".

In a business setting accounting techniques may be used to provide financial measures of the benefits of teamwork which are useful for justifying the concept. Teamwork is increasingly advocated by health care policy makers as a means of assuring quality and safety in the delivery of services; a committee of the Institute of Medicine recommended in 2000 that patient safety programs "establish interdisciplinary team training programs for providers that incorporate proven methods of team training, such as simulation."

In health care, a systematic concept analysis in 2008 concluded teamwork to be "a dynamic process involving two or more healthcare professionals with complementary backgrounds and skills, sharing common health goals and exercising concerted physical and mental effort in assessing, planning, or evaluating patient care." Elsewhere teamwork is defined as "those behaviours that facilitate effective team member interaction," with "team" defined as "a group of two or more individuals who perform some work related task, interact with one another dynamically, have a shared past, have a foreseeable shared future, and share a common fate." Another definition for teamwork proposed in 2008 is "the interdependent components of performance required to effectively coordinate the performance of multiple individuals"; as such, teamwork is "nested within" the broader concept of team performance which also includes individual-level task work. A 2012 review of the academic literature found that the word "teamwork" has been used "as a catchall to refer to a number of behavioral processes and emergent states."

Source: http://www.likeateam.com/a-clear-definition-of-teamwork/

Teamwork processes

Researchers have identified 10 teamwork processes that fall into three categories:

Transition processes (between periods of action)

·         Mission analysis

·         Goal specification

·         Strategy formulation

Action processes (when the team attempts to accomplish its goals and objectives)

·         Monitoring progress toward goals

·         Systems monitoring

·         Team monitoring and backup behavior

·         Coordination

·          

Interpersonal processes (present in both action periods and transition periods)

·         Conflict management

·         Motivation and confidence building

·         Affect management

Researchers have confirmed that performing teamwork works better when you are with a close person. This is due to a chemical called serotonin( 5-Hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) which helps an individual to communicate better and think more positively which. Serotonin is produced when an individual is in a situation where he/she is in comfortable environment.

Source: http://www.planstoreality.com.au/teams-teamwork.html

Training to improve teamwork

As summarized in a 2008 review, "team training promotes teamwork and enhances team performance." In specific, a 2008 meta-analysis of 45 published and unpublished studies concluded that team training is "useful for improving cognitive outcomes, affective outcomes, teamwork processes, and performance outcomes."

Source: http://www.toonpool.com/cartoons/teamwork_41752

Benefits of Teamwork

·         Problems solving: A single brain can’t ounce different ideas off of each other. Each team member has a responsibility to contribute equally and offer their unique perspective on a problem to arrive at the best possible solution. Teamwork can lead to better decisions, products, or services. The quality of teamwork may be measured by analyzing the following six components of collaboration among team members: communication, coordination, balance of member contributions, mutual support, effort, and cohesion. In one study, teamwork quality as measured in this manner correlated with team performance in the areas of effectiveness (i.e., producing high quality work) and efficiency (i.e., meeting schedules and budgets). A 2008 meta-analysis also found a relationship between teamwork and team effectiveness.

·         Accomplish tasks faster: A single person taking on multiple tasks will not be able to perform at a same pace as a team can. When people work together they can complete tasks faster by dividing the work to people of different abilities and knowledge.

·         Healthy competition: A healthy competition in groups can be used to motivate individuals and help the team excel.

·         Developing Relationships: A team that continues to work together will eventually develop an increased level of bonding. This can help people avoid unnecessary conflicts since they have become well acquainted with each other through team work. Team members’ ratings of their satisfaction with a team is correlated with the level of teamwork processes present.

·         Everyone has unique qualities: Every team member can offer their unique knowledge and ability to help improve other team members. Through teamwork the sharing of these qualities will allow team members to be more productive in the future.

·         In healthcare: teamwork is associated with increased patient safety.

Adolf Eichman's trial judge: Do you notice that there are three judges instead of one?

Things to Avoid

·         Teamwork may have an "unintended effect of fermenting hostility toward the managerial goal of making the teams fully self-managing." In one case study of a clothing manufacturer, a switch from production line work (with bonuses given for individual performance) to teamwork (in which an individual's earnings depended on team performance) caused workers to resent having to monitor each other.

·         There is a potential of "social loafing" (i.e., an individual's doing less work in a team than what he/she would normally do working individually). In order to minimize social loafing, management can make individual performance more visible while in a team setting. This can be done by forming smaller teams, specializing specific tasks to certain individuals, and measuring individual performance. Social loafing can also be reduced by increasing employee motivation, by selecting employees who have previously shown themselves to be motivated, and increasing job enrichment. In experiments conducted in the 1990s, an increase in group cohesiveness appeared to decrease social loafing.

Japan: The Supreme Court's No. 1 Petty Bench, which on Monday rejected the appeal of Seiichi Endo, a former senior member of the Aum Supreme Truth cult

A PANEL OF JUDGES IS A GREAT IDEA!

            As much as I do not want an innocent to be wrongfully executed in a capital case, I always recommend the courts to be extremely carefully and also to have massive safeguards. That is why I recommend that all the judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers work in a team each, instead of working alone. Here are several reasons why I believe that judges must work as a team:

Source: http://marketing4excellence.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/six-common-misperceptions-about.html

1. I personally recommend that instead of a single judge in a capital trial, I recommend at least two judges or a panel of more than five judges. As Helen Keller once said:

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”

            John Heywood also said: “Many hands make light work.”

            As it is hard for a single judge to make a decision by himself, a panel of judges will help each other to make the ultimate decision, more brains can eliminate mistakes and contribute to more thinking. This is an effective way of how working as a team can prevent a miscarriage of justice.   

Imam Samudra faces judges in an Indonesian court.

2. A panel of judges will make a strong justice system. English author and musician, Chris Bradford was quoted in his book, Young Samurai: The Way of The Dragon (2010):  

“Only by binding together as a single force will we remain strong and unconquerable.”

            Retired American Basketball Coach, Phil Jackson once said:

“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”

            If you take the 8 Judges of the Nuremberg Trials for example, they formed a strong justice system as they worked as a team. They were able to accomplish their tasks faster.

Source: http://archive.adl.org/education/dimensions_19/section1/international_law.asp

Courtroom of the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg

In front of the four allied flags, sit the judges, court reporters and clerks,
during the first Nuremberg trial.

The 8 Judges of The Nuremberg Trials

The Nuremberg judges, left to right: John Parker, Francis Biddle, Alexander Volchkov, Iona Nikitchenko, Geoffrey Lawrence, Norman Birkett

3. I feel that a panel of judges need to get along well among themselves by cooperating as a team. American writer, Patrick Lencioni was quoted in his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable:

“Remember teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.”

“Great teams do not hold back with one another. They are unafraid to air their dirty laundry. They admit their mistakes, their weaknesses, and their concerns without fear of reprisal.”

            One way of cooperation in teamwork is to be loyal to one another. American psychologist, Rensis Likert once said:

“The greater the loyalty of a group toward the group, the greater is the motivation among the members to achieve the goals of the group, and the greater the probability that the group will achieve its goals.”

Source: http://www.sportdownunder.com.au/teamwork/

4. Teamwork is a success; an individual working alone is not as successful. Just like we need many soldiers in the armed forces and not just a single ‘Rambo’ to defeat the enemies, we need more judges to make the ultimate decision to send the guilty criminals to their deaths. The Founder of the Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford was quoted as saying:

 “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success. If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”

            The late American Football Coach, Vince Lombardi once said:

“Individual commitment to a group effort -- that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”

            Here are the reasons why I prefer a panel of judges, as I believe in teamwork as part of safeguards in capital trials.