In this second of a series on lawyers and what they're good for, we're going to turn our attention first to criminal law. There are two sides to this. The first side is the prosecution. It is their job to put a case together in such a manner that the facts will show beyond any doubt that the person on trial is guilty. Let's be honest, if these people did not do their jobs correctly, we would have a number of truly hardened dangerous criminals on the streets. And for those who think that there are no criminals in the world you might simply want to put on the news at night. These poor victims aren't being robbed and killed by nobody. Without prosecuting attorneys and the laws behind them these people would continue to be out on the streets doing their mayhem. On the other side is the defense. In most cases, unfortunately, these lawyers are defending people who are clearly guilty and because of this you just want to send them all packing to that inferno below. But every now and then there is someone on trial who is truly innocent and they need a lawyer more than anyone because we are literally, in many cases, talking about the difference between life and death. An associate of mine has personally told me of cases he has been witness to where someone was accused unjustly of a crime and almost went to jail until the truth finally came out, either in a last minute testimony or in evidence that had been presented at the eleventh hour. Yes, there are innocent people who do stand trial. That is why we need defense lawyers. Then there are lawyers who specialize in slander and libel cases. Someone prints something totally untrue about you in their newspaper that ruins your reputation. You lose your job, lose respect in the community and basically have your life in a shambles. Without these lawyers to go to court, armed with the facts, to show that you have in fact been slandered your life would be over. You may not get your reputation back once the news is out, and your job may still be gone for good, but at least with the monetary settlement you won't have to worry about paying your bills. And again, if you think this doesn't happen, it does. Finally, for this article, we're going to go over the usefulness of income tax attorneys. You're a law abiding citizen. You pay your taxes every year. But one year you make an honest, but horrible, mistake that lands you in a load of trouble with the IRS. It is the job of this lawyer to prove that the mistake you made was an honest one and was not done intentionally. You may still have to pay some kind of penalty but at least you won't end up going to jail for tax evasion. As much as we may or may not like lawyers and applaud every joke that comes our way about them, we would really be in deep trouble in way many areas if we didn't have them around. Kill all the lawyers? Maybe not a good idea. |
