Why We Need a Lawyer?
Charles Dickens, a famous English novelist, once said “If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.”
Many term the above statement as hilarious but true to a certain extent; whilst a few disagree and belong to a different school of thought! But does it really matter? Because the fact today states that there is one lawyer for every 135 citizens in New York!
The reason behind this increasing ratio of lawyers worldwide lies within the fact that every one of us often gets directly or indirectly involved in a dispute with one or more individuals. To seek justice we then approach the courts of law. To do this, most of us have to hire the services of a lawyer due to the fact that we aren’t familiar with the procedure of filing a lawsuit against the individual, company, state, etc. In few cases, when an individual files a case against someone, chooses self-representation in the court. This normally takes place when the individual has good knowledge about the law of his or her country, and the lawsuit is not much complicated. In these rare cases, self-representation takes place, but overall, people minimize the risk of losing a lawsuit by hiring the services of a good lawyer.
The need of lawyer dates back to the early era of mankind. History tells us about the birth of lawyers and practice of law in ancient Greek and Roman era, when this field was not publicly and officially accepted or declared as a profession. In ancient Greek, lawyers were not supposed to charge their clients for handling their cases. This was considered as one of the major obstacles that this occupation went through during that time period, and even after enormous pressure from the orators, this law was never abolished. However, in ancient Roman era, similar law was implemented initially, but soon after Roman Emperor Claudius came into power, this law was abolished and advocates were allowed to take fees for their legal services. Apart from this, many amendments took place within this profession during the late ancient Rome era.
Our history tells us that whenever two or more human beings were involved in a serious and prolonged dispute or quarrel, almost always the involved individuals failed to reach a solution or a settlement that didn’t require a law or any assistance from the state. The chances that the dispute will be solved, where all the parties involved will reach a mutual settlement and fair justice, were very dim. This frequently gave birth to criminal acts in a society, where the powerful tried to suppress the weak and after some time, the weak came up with no other option but to seek revenge and ensure justice, at least within his/her mind. This was one of the major reasons why individuals felt the need of a person who could be consulted to resolve an issue, and which was lawfully declared full-and-final.