Law, Legal Professionals and Ethical Misconduct in the Courts
Assignment Overview
This assignment is a discussion and analysis of Justice, Legal Professionals and Ethical Misconduct
Deliverables
Write and submit a 2 page summary of Chapters 8 & 10
Write and submit a response to a hypothetical regarding ethical dilemmas and/or questions.
Step 1 – Write a 2 page summary of Chapter 8 & 10.
Step 2 – In a separate section and heading (after your summary),
Write a response to Chapter 8: Situation 3 (p. 243) of the Ethical Dilemmas and explain your answer from the standpoint of the attorney (in this case the prosecutor) being the Legal agent vs Moral agent.
Law, Legal Professionals and Ethical Misconduct in the Courts
Chapter 8
The law serves as a written representation of the morals and ethics of the society. Active laws dictate the right behavior in which one should follow. Natural laws set a belief that the laws are inherent within the community. Today, we can classify law into criminal law, which is meant to punish the wrongdoers and positivist or civil law, which is intended to seek rules made by humans, regardless of being right or wrong. Ordinances and Statutes are laws that dictate how humans should drive, how they should run their businesses, and the actions that are allowed and not allowed in public and private.
The laws that are under immigration have been under federal legislation since the border protection is a national role (Pollock, 2014). The criminal law advocates for prevention from harm where every human should have the freedom to their actions. Unless, if they are at risk of harming others. Under the legal moralism, the hate-crime legislation is rationalized and could be supported by the harm principle. The harm could be in the form of assault, hate speech, stalking, or harassment. A paradigm is formed by radical views of humans around the world. It is about the functions of law in society. Standard helps us to arrange the knowledge we collect every day.
The white-collar crimes are those that are committed by those with political, social, and economic power. The legal professionals are not allowed to accept money from clients for the wrong purposes or a suspicious amount of money. They are also not allowed to harm other people in the process of representing their clients. They are supposed to be very loyal to their client by not betraying the trust built between them. They should have the ability to make their moral decisions and follow them consistently. They should have self-drive and standards.
Chapter 10
The ethical misconduct involves an improper behavior inside or outside of the courtroom. In most cases, the defense attorneys are given less attention than the judges and prosecutors in dealing with misconduct (Braswell, McCarthy & McCarthy, 2017). The attorneys, primarily civil and criminal attorneys, don’t communicate regularly with their clients. Clients filed a complaint to the bar associations concerning the fault of the attorneys. Other cases brought forward as such as witnesses not being contacted, failure of conducting legal research, sleeping during a trial, use of hard drugs like cocaine, and heroin during a trial, among others.
Criminal lawyers have been reported for tampering with witnesses and bribery. Prosecutorial misconduct happens when the prosecutor fails to protect the process in progress. Hiding of evidence is one of the criminal acts of misconduct committed by a prosecutor. Racial biases and stereotyping are other cases of ethical misconduct in courts. One of the reasons why prosecutors commit the different types of misconduct is because they can or rather succinctly. The rank of a prosecutor is the least scrutinized; hence they have a lot of freedom to commit malpractice.
In conclusion, the morals and ethics of society are dictated by law. The law is meant to protect human rights and ensure there is equal treatment among everybody. There are those laws that criticize or are intended to prevent harm. Other laws do more harm than good. For example, those that deal with divorce and family matters, some of the business contracts and inheritances, among others. The ethical misconduct in courts includes incompetence, arrogance, and bribes, among others. The ethical malpractices are not acceptable in courts.
case
Ethical Dilemmas
situation 3
Being a competent district attorney and knowing the legal procedures behind such a case, I would let the defendant plead guilty for sentence probation. Since my evidence is not adequate to support a conviction, I would not risk taking the case to court for a trial. I would not let the victims’ pressure control what I should do because I should have a standard and follow the ethical procedure expected of me. Perhaps because of inadequate evidence, the defendant might win the case and go home free.
References
Pollock, J. M. (2014). Ethical dilemmas and decisions in criminal justice. Nelson Education.
Braswell, M. C., McCarthy, B. R., & McCarthy, B. J. (2017). Justice, crime, and ethics. Taylor & Francis.
