How Long Do Federal Cases Take

How Long Do Federal Cases Take

Your lawyer just told you about the Speedy Trial Act. You’re charged federally – wire fraud, drug trafficking, lying to federal agents – and your attorney mentioned 70 days to trial. You’re relieved. Two months, this nightmare ends. Then your lawyer explains it doesn’t work that way. Federal cases drag on for months, years sometimes. You don’t know whether to tell your employer you’ll be back in three months or quit now, whether you can survive six months detained in MDC Brooklyn or if you’ll break and plead guilty just to end the waiting. The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to a speedy trial – but that guarantee has been legislated into meaninglessness through exclusions, continuances, procedural delays that pressure guilty pleas. The Speedy Trial Act of 1974 requires trial within 70 days of indictment. In practice, the median federal criminal case in 2022 took 314 days from filing to disposition – that’s 10.5 months, not 70 days. Bureau of Justice Statistics tracks this precisely: median duration increased from 300 days in 2021 to 314 days in 2022. The gap exists because the Speedy Trial Act contains exclusions that swallow the rule. Every pretrial motion your attorney files pauses the 70-day clock. Motion to suppress evidence? Clock pauses from filing through hearing through the judge’s decision. Continuances for “ends of justice,” plea negotiations, competency evaluations, interlocutory appeals, co-defendant delays – all excluded from the 70-day calculation. You face an impossible choice. Waive your speedy trial right to give your attorney time to prepare adequate defense, or insist on the 70-day timeline and go to trial unprepared against prosecutors who spent years investigating before charging you. Most defendants waive speedy trial because exercising the right means near-certain conviction. That’s not constitutional protection – that’s coercion dressed up as procedural necessity.

Thanks for visiting Spodek Law Group – a second-generation law firm managed by Todd Spodek, who has represented federal defendants for many, many years. We’ve handled cases that resolved in eight months and prosecutions that dragged on for thirty months. Federal cases follow procedural steps that take twice as long as anyone predicts. This is what actually determines how long your case takes.

What Controls Your Timeline

Case complexity determines duration more than any other factor. Simple drug possession – one defendant, caught with drugs, minimal discovery – resolves in six to twelve months. Wire fraud involving multiple defendants, thousands of emails, financial records spanning years? Eighteen to twenty-four months minimum. The judge matters too. Random assignment means some judges move cases aggressively while others let cases drift for months. Pretrial motions add weeks or months to your timeline – every motion requires briefing, hearing scheduling, judicial rulings. But you need those motions. If the government obtained evidence illegally, you can’t ignore it to save time. The system forces you to choose between speed and adequate defense.

Cooperation negotiations extend timelines significantly. If you’re considering cooperating with the government, add three to six months for proffer sessions, agreement negotiations, and testimony preparation. Co-defendant issues cascade into delays. Multiple defendants mean scheduling conflicts and sometimes separate trials. Discovery volume matters too. Hundreds of thousands of pages of financial records require months of review before your attorney knows what motions to file.

If you’re detained pretrial in MDC Brooklyn or MCC Manhattan, you’re thinking detention must move your case faster. It won’t. Being detained doesn’t change your trial date. What changes is your ability to survive the wait. Studies show defendants detained pretrial receive harsher sentences than those released, even controlling for offense severity. Prosecutors know detention breaks defendants psychologically – that’s why they fight to keep you locked up. Detention creates pressure to plead guilty just to end the detention, even if you’re innocent. Released defendants can meet with attorneys freely, gather documents, help investigate. Detained defendants communicate through 15-minute jail phone calls. Your defense suffers while the timeline stays the same – ten to fifteen months that a released defendant spends preparing their defense. Week one through two: arrest, initial appearance within 48-72 hours, detention hearing. Month one: arraignment, discovery begins. Months two through four: pretrial motions filed and briefed. Months four through eight: discovery continues, plea negotiations begin. Months six through twelve: for 98% of federal cases, plea agreements finalize during this window. For the 2% who go to trial, trial preparation intensifies. Months eight through fourteen: trials happen or sentencing occurs three to four months after plea. Total duration: ten to fifteen months for typical cases, eighteen to twenty-four months for complex prosecutions. If you’re at month five wondering why your case isn’t resolved – this is why. The system moves slowly by design. Every procedural protection adds time. You can invoke your speedy trial right and demand trial within 70 days. Then you go to trial unprepared. Prosecutors spent years investigating before indicting you. You get 70 days. Your attorney can’t review complex discovery or file motions that might suppress evidence – because every motion pauses the clock. Federal conviction rate at trial exceeds 90%. Go to trial unprepared, that rate approaches 100%. If you’re convicted at trial, the trial penalty destroys you. Average sentence after trial is three times higher than after pleading guilty. Sometimes seven to nine additional years for exercising your Sixth Amendment right to trial.

So you waive speedy trial. Everyone does. But waiving speedy trial means prosecutors control the timeline. If you’re detained, they use delays strategically – every month increases pressure to plead. If released, they use delays to build more evidence. You can’t win. The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to speedy trial. In practice, exercising it destroys you. That’s not constitutional protection – that’s systemic coercion.

Todd Spodek has represented federal defendants throughout his career – SDNY, EDNY, district courts across the country. Call 212-300-5196.