Archive for the ‘Criminal’ Category
Sometimes government agencies file a heavy corporate lawsuit against a company due to, for example, safety of employees at work, deliberate amendments in an employee’s contract, cause of toxic fumes, or polluted water from a factory causing diseases in the nearby areas. In these cases, companies hire the best of lawyers to represent them in the courts of law. If a lawyer is good enough, then they won’t lose the case. Even if they do, there’s a possibility that because of the lawyer’s expertise, the company will have to pay lesser fine, or reduced sentences for the higher officials of the firm. And this might only be possible if the company did have a very good lawyer that helped them significantly throughout the case proceeding.
Similarly, sometimes there are deliberate attempts by the powerful segment of the society, for example, seize property of a financially weak person, or wrongfully prosecute someone for an act that he or she did not commit, just by using power or political pressure. These acts can only be challenged successfully if the lawyer has sound knowledge about the law of that particular country. Because in these sorts of cases, the other party will surely be hiring the best of the lawyers, mainly because their clients are famous public figures, usually politicians and they can’t afford to scandalize themselves due to these sorts of wrongful acts. They don’t want to let the public or the media know about this.
In third world countries, these sort of unjust activities take place, and only due to the fact that the weaker side cannot afford good lawyers, powerful and famous people enjoy the liberty of carrying out such wrongful deeds without getting noticed and get away easily. A recent example of such incident took place in Pakistan, where a 3-year old girl was killed in a famous hospital due to doctor’s negligence. As the hospital was owned by some powerful segment of the society, the case has not been solved yet, no arrests have been made so far against the accused staff of that hospital, and there have been deliberate delays in the proceeding of this case since the past one and a half years.
This one case created awareness because the girl’s father is an educated man and he didn’t came under any sort of political or corporate pressure, but hundreds and thousands of cases like this take place in both the rural and urban part of the third world countries every day, but the involved parties easily get away with their criminal acts, only due to the fact that they can use their power against the other party, and at times the best of lawyers so that they can portray themselves innocent.
So, all these factors contribute to the fact that no matter what occupation we choose, regardless of any other factor, we as human beings who are vulnerable in the world we live in, and sometimes, the mistakes we commit, can only end up in our favor when we will be having the services of a good lawyer at the day when we have to appear in front of the jury. Abraham Lincoln rightly once said:
“The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every other calling, is diligence. Leave nothing for to-morrow which can be done to-day.”
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.