joether
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quote:
ORIGINAL: SadistDave
I favor a free-market solution. A literal interpretation of Miranda suggests that a defense attorney should be free for those who cannot afford it, but doesn't madate the quality or experience of the lawyer to be assigned. Pass the cost of defending the poor on to students.
All persons are treated....EQUALLY....under the law. Obliviously you never got that concept in US History. Its not certain types of people, but all persons found doing wrong by society within the government's control/domain. That means regardless of any other feature of the individual, they are given the same lawyer as anybody else. There is no such thing as a 'student lawyer', unless you are to say one is 'practicing law' like a MEDICAL DOCTOR (that would be a person that has studied, pass tests for certifications, and residence) 'practices medicine'. In order to be an actual lawyer, one has to attend higher education and past the state/federal bar examinations. And those tests are not the 4th grader mathematic tests that you are used to either!
quote:
ORIGINAL: SadistDave
I think that serving a limited term of one year doing pro-bono work that would be overseen by universities should be required to graduate with a law degree. (It's basically the same idea as a medical internship.) Essentially, the lawyer being provided would be the legal professors and the students would work the trials under supervision. Students would be required to take cases assigned to them and their win/loss ratio would most likely make them more competetive since they would want to land jobs with the best law firms in their fields. The better students would likely go to private firms. Even so, the rest would still be better prepared for work in the public sector when they graduated.
That would be an interesting, idea, except for two important things:
A ) The US Constitution
There is just to many items to list here ranging from the Miranda Rights to the 5th amendment. The laws themselves preclude the establishment of this process at current.
B ) The Founding Fathers
The founding fathers believed that justice and liberty should always trump over mob justice, and unequal representation. That a lawyer gains skill, insight and experience the longer they perform their duties in and outside of court; and that becomes a commodity to be tapped at any time, to keep the least fortunate from being under served by government.
Both of those ideas (A & B) is why some public defenders are young, some old, and the remainder are somewhere in-between. Which is also why in many states, the defendant can request new defenders. Usually that involves the defendant bringing in a hired lawyer to defend themselves. Which is why you might see a relatively well-off individual being represented by a public defender at their arrangement, because the guy's lawyer could not get to the court house in time. But later represents the defendant in court.
quote:
ORIGINAL: SadistDave
The bigger the cases a student can win, the more likely he or she is to land the best job. That should make students some of the most competetive defense attorneys available. Of course the court would have the oversight of what cases would go to students. For instance, defending a violent offender should be handled through the Public Defenders office.
Defense attorneys aside, there are many aspects of legal study. A pro-bono requirement for social aspects of the law could make it less expensive for the poor to have affordable legal counsel in divorces, property rights claims/disputes, tax disputes, personal injury, and just about every aspect of the law. A separate program of internship could be set up for businesses to sponsor students learning business law, corporate tort law, etc..
Meh.... it's just a thought.
I believe this nation benefits by leaps and bounds by NOT listening to your thoughts on this matter. You would water down liberty for those less fortunate then yourself, but are equally as much a citizen of this nation as you are. Would you desire to have a young, student lawyer that has not pass the bar exam in your state, nor any real long-term experience in and outside of a court room, defending your hide from Murder 1? The courts in Massachusetts do not usually give someone a public defender with less than five years of experience.
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