Band of Paperwork

Lt. Lynn “Buck” Compton was a war hero, DA, judge, and the eventual subject of HBO’s “Band of Brothers.” But he is responsible for one of the most evil acts ever perpetrated on a prosecutor’s office:

We created a training division to supervise the development of incoming attorneys, something I always wished I’d had when I started in the office. We also generated a written policy manual that contained everything from forms for written communications to dispositions of cases.

Call of Duty, Compton, at p. 197.

No, not the training division. The manual. The forms, the paperwork, and all the wasted time that came with it. Every bit of paperwork is time spent away from preparing and trying a case. If I could, I would tattoo the hand of every administrator in every office across the state: “less paperwork.”