Through my placement, I have developed a greater appreciation of how difficult it is for a barrister to balance the competing interests and duties owed to the accused, the complainant, the public, and the court, and remain alive to the ethical issues but remain distant from the matters before them. To practice law successfully, a lawyer must have both good communication skills, as well as a technical understanding of the law.
My experience on placement will contribute to my future professional role is the importance of maintaining an emotional distance from the matter before you. In agreement with Wilkins, Ross substantiates that ‘collapsing professional ethics and into personal morality misses something important’, and I agree with this
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It was a drug trafficking case, and C has prior convictions for similar offences. Briefly, the drug investigation branch found C at home with almost $10,000 in cash hidden in his underwear, and flushed remnants of methamphetamine in his toilet. Nick and I were convinced that C needed to plead. However, when it got to trial, Davison J gave the prosecutor a particularly difficult time because, as it became evident, the prosecutor had effectively no evidence: no samples had been taken from the sink that C had allegedly used to flush drugs down. The extent of the evidence was that a trained police dog ran to the bathroom and knelt down to indicate the presence of drugs. This came an enormous shock to the courtroom. Nick and I were mistaken about the extent of the evidence against C. By a stroke of luck, Nick’s client escaped unscathed. A nolle prosequi resulted. C was annoyed and said, “You wanted me to plead guilty!” This was a valuable lesson for me because I realized that sometimes matters that appear obvious might go unnoticed, even passing through a number of hands at the DPP. It is for you, then, as a lawyer, to ensure that the state, at all stages, is held to a high …show more content…
I believe that both validation and communication, then, are crucial for justice access. It is already intimidating for a client to meet a lawyer and discuss details of their life with them, especially difficult to disclose information that may reflect negatively on the client. It is necessary to foster a mutual respect between a lawyer and their client. I found that it was equally important for a client to feel that they were receiving adequate representation just as much as they actually were receiving it. Law is a public good if it accessible by all. It is important to be make a client feel comfortable during interviews to provide proper justice access, and be professional in your dealings with them. Lauchland discusses a number of exercises for good communication, and one of the best tools that he discussed to ‘disarm’ a client is to establish a rapport. I learnt how to ‘thread’ in conversations by asking client’s about whether they had a long drive down, or the weather, or anything else they mentioned. This is a useful conversational tool necessary to make people feel comfortable in situations, and it distracts them, in part, from their situation. This was especially important for me to monitor my tone because a majority of Nick’s clients were accused of several sexual offences, usually against children. People can be very perceptive when they feel that they are being judged, and as defence counsel and accompanying Nick as I
On June 26, 2006, a Sheriff Officer of the State of Florida, William Wheetley and his drug detection dog, Aldo, were on patrol. Furthermore, Officer Wheetley conducted a traffic stop of the defendant Clayton Harris for expired tags on his truck. As Officer Wheetley approached the truck, he noticed that Harris was acting nervous/anxious, more than he should have, and he also noticed an open can of beer in the cup holder next to him. At that moment, Officer Wheetley knew that he was hiding something, he requested to search
There are certain standards that the courts use to determine competency. In order to find the accused competent, a court should find out by a preponderance of evidence that the defendant has remarkable ability to consult with his lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational indulgence. The def...
Communication between an attorney and its client is crucial during a trial. The attorney - client privilege is a legal privilege between the client the and the attorney assuring the privacy of the client. There have been many cases where the attorney and client privilege has become an issue and most people believe that an attorney should break his/her privilege when the client confesses of harming more than one victim. When it comes to an attorney and a client it is important for both parties to understand each other, and assure that each conversation such be between client and attorney only.
In 1992, Houston police officers found two homicide victims in a house at an unspecified time. The investigation of this homicide led them to defendant, Genovevo Salinas, where the police asked and the defendant agreed to accompany the police officers to the station where the defendant was questioned for about one hour. Police collected shotgun shells from the murder scene, which is the home of the two brothers that have been shot and killed. The defendant, without being detained and read his Miranda rights, voluntarily answered most of the police officer’s questions about the murder stated earlier. This interview lasted about one hour and both the officer and the defendant agreed it was a consensual encounter. He became very quite once the officer’s asked if under ballistics testing the casing, found at the crime scene, would match the shotgun the defendant owned. After this question the officer asked other questions and the defendant did answer the rest of the questions asked. Police also found a witness who said Salinas admitted to killing the victims. In 1993, Salinas was charged with the murders, but could not be located. 15 years later, Salinas was finally captured. The first trial ended in a mistrial. During the second trial the prosecutors used the silence the defendant had at this time, even over the objection of the defendant, as evidence of guilt in Texas state court. He was convicted, in both State Court of Appeals and Court of Criminal Appeals.
To summarize, the three main ethical issues that arise in this problem are those of duty of confidentiality towards my client, conflict of interests and duties owed to the court. Even though at a first glance they might seem to be raising some difficulties, each of these matters can be resolved through tact, good communication and a diligent behaviour.
Burstein, P. (2008). The Role of a Defence Counsel. In J. V. Roberts, & M. G. Grossman (Eds.), Criminal Justice in Canada: a Reader (3rd Edition ed., pp. 48-58). Toronto: Thomson Nelson.
Gregory Parsons’ with many other cases would bring light to show how most people’s wrongful conviction are motivated by tunnel vision. Police and prosecutors of Parsons’ case were single minded and focused narrowly because of the pressure to solve the case. His case like many others would remind prosecutors that it is not just about winning or losing a case, but rather that they should keep in mind that their role is not to secure a conviction, but to ensure that justice is done.
Although the legal profession is a single discourse community, it is made up of many smaller discourse communities. This is so because while all lawyers share the same broad goals of the legal profession and have a general knowledge and expertise in all areas of the law, most lawyers after graduating from law school and passing the bar exam specialize in a particular area of law. This specialization requires the lawyer to go beyond the broad concepts of law as a whole and to become knowledgeable and proficient in the sometimes minute details of a more specific area of law. Even then, some lawyers will go even further to focus on one aspect or another of that particular area of law. This results in most lawyers being members of many even smal...
Moot courts also teach professionalism and ethics to students of law, to apply law to fact, to structure and rank a legal argument by strength, and not to assert losing propositions. They provide law students opportunities to improve their legal writing, legal research, and oral advocacy in a competitive environment that prepares students for a competitive world. The moot court experience is perhaps the most important activity in law school. It is the activity that fully develops the skill every lawyer must possess: advocacy. Regardless of practice area, all lawyers must communicate in a way that advances their client’s interests, whether in a courtroom or boardroom. Most important, moot court builds character. Every student competitor “will be a better lawyer, and a better person, because of the moot court experience.”
They are often involved in all aspects of the law. Some work in family courts, for instance providing professional opinions on child custody and assessing competency to ...
My major is Paralegal Studies and I expect to graduate with an Associates of Arts degree in December of this year. Many years ago, as an investigator for both a private company and a county agency, I was introduced to the legal field. Recently, I was awarded the opportunity to attend college, so I decided I wanted to reenter the legal profession as a paralegal. The paralegal profession appeals to me, because I enjoy the processes of developing a case, as well as its legal aspects. A paralegal is involved in a case from the beginning to the end; from the initial client interview to assisting the attorney during the client’s trial or the settlement process. My goal is to become a paralegal for a solo practitioner or a small firm in my local area who represent clients in different areas of the law.
When a prosecutor is deciding whether a case should be prosecuted in the courts and charges should be filed against someone, prosecutors consider two important questions: Is it in the best interest of the public to proceed? And, is there a strong reasonable likelihood that there will be a conviction? If the answer to both are yes, then there is the task of deciding whether there is enough evidence to prosecute the case and whether the evidence is reliable and can it be used in court. This means carefully assessing the quality of the evidence from all related witnesses before reaching a final decision.
Lawyers are hired by people and by businesses to help them in legal cases (“Lawyer”Whats para.1). Your skills in the field of lawyering will only improve with on the job training (“Lawyer” What’s para. 4). Almost all of your training will come from on the job by actually going out there and trying and learning from your mistakes (“Lawyer” What’s para. 5). Th...
Substantive and Procedural Law – Substantive laws are the social rights and duties of people, and procedural law are guidelines through which government bodies or courts deal with breaches in substantive law. E.g. substantive law would state that hitting someone with a car and driving off is a crime, while procedural law would define how the courts could try and sentence in the case.
Proper Counseling: A Lawyer is responsible to counsel his client deeply and should tell him the future consequences, so that the client can take right decision.