In addition to the discovery stage, what other stages are there in a court proceeding? Is any one stage more important than the other? Why or why not? Thoughts?

In addition to the discovery stage, several other stages are involved in a court proceeding.  There are four preliminary stages involved in a court proceeding. These stages have sub stages involved, and they are arranged as follows; the pleading stage (complaint and court motions), the pre-trial stage (discovery and fact-finding), the trial stage (jury selection to judgment) and the post-trial stage which mainly involves appeals (Andrews, 2018).  In my perspective, the most important and crucial stage is the trial stage since it proves whether the accused is guilty or not. In addition to that, the stage is composed of vast steps that lead to the trial which are (jury selection, opening statements, witness calling, defendant calling, rebuttal witnesses calling, closing argument, jury deliberation, the verdict and lastly the final judgment). This proves that the latter is an essential stage in the court proceeding.  

References

Andrews, N. (2018). The three paths of justice: court proceedings, arbitration, and mediation in England (Vol. 65). Springer.