http://amthenight.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] amthenight.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] fandomhigh2013-10-11 08:25 am
Entry tags:

Criminal Justice, Friday, Period 1

"A few weeks ago, we talked about lawyers," Batman said. "We're following up on that this week. I may have given you the impression that criminal lawyers are slimy, amoral,greedy sociopaths. And if I hadn't given that impression, then let me clear it up for you. Many are. But today, I'd like to introduce you to a better kind of criminal lawyer; the public defender."

"When you're arrested, one of the rights an officer has to explain is the right to an attorney. If you can't afford one, one will be provided for you. Public defenders are those guys. They're paid by the government to do their very best to defend you from the government prosecutors. It's a little strange, but it works in principal."

"How it works practically is another matter. Government budgets tend not to supply that much funding, so the pay is low. Since the pay is low, lawyers aren't exactly lining up for the job, especially high quality, experienced lawyers. And this means a higher case load on the people who do have the job," Batman explained. "When given proper funding and a reasonable case load, it's been shown that trial outcomes in cases involving public defenders are in line with the statistics from cases involving private attorneys. WIthout the funding and too high a workload, the conviction rate rises, as you would expect."

"Today you're going to try to get a small idea of how being a public defender works. You'll have several points to argue with no notice. It will be your job to take at least one of these cases and make your best argument for a point. You may not agree with the point being made, but it's your job to argue it to the best of your ability."
ultron_junior: ([neu] a little suspicious)

Re: Sign In

[personal profile] ultron_junior 2013-10-12 01:29 am (UTC)(link)
Victor Mancha

Re: Sign In

[identity profile] mummyspromdate.livejournal.com 2013-10-12 02:12 am (UTC)(link)
Maddie Berry
selfhelphero: ([pos] tiny smile at you)

Re: Argument #3

[personal profile] selfhelphero 2013-10-11 05:36 pm (UTC)(link)
"Christmas may only be one day a year, but the Christmas season should encompass way more time than that," Billy said, hoping his mother's Jewish sense wasn't tingling somewhere. "Stores rely on the money spent during the Christmas season to survive, and if the shopping started in say, July, people would be able to buy more gifts because they'd have more shopping time available during more pay periods. And stores would have to hire holiday help earlier, which would create jobs, and people are always nicer around Christmas, so maybe they'd be nicer for longer if they were in the Christmas spirit for longer and... yeah."

He kind of ran out of steam at the end there, but he'd gotten way more into that than he expected too.
ultron_junior: (Default)

Re: Talk to Victor

[personal profile] ultron_junior 2013-10-12 01:30 am (UTC)(link)
Victor chose to go toward the end of class. He was interested in finding out what arguments everyone else would make.