"Gentlemen and ladies of the jury, discuss your verdict."
Judge Harvey Brooke leaned back in his chair and picked up his wine glass again.
After the jury members briefly deliberated, a young man wearing a black woolen coat stood up from his seat, looked around, and shouted:
"Not guilty!"
…………
Outside the Magistrate's Court on West Veras Street, Wood Johnson, who was wearing a thick brown jacket and loose baggy breeches, had a grateful face. He rubbed his right hand on the breeches again and again, then stretched it out and said:
"Thank you, Mr. Adrian, I really don't know how to thank you."
Rawls stretched out his hand, shook his hand, and replied with a smile: "This is what I should do, and you have already paid me, haven't you?"
"No, no, no, I know that for a big shot like you, the remuneration of 10 soles is far from enough. It is only because you are soft-hearted and kind that you accepted the commission of my solicitor. Originally, I thought that the money could only be used by my solicitor.
The person who defended me in court never expected to hire a barrister, or a top barrister like you."
In the Kingdom of Loen, lawyers are divided into barristers and solicitors. The latter are responsible for matters that do not require going to court, such as collecting evidence, talking to parties, helping people draw up wills, supervising property distribution and providing legal consulting services. Of course,
, they can also represent parties in the most junior magistrate courts and defend simple cases.
Barristers are lawyers who study evidence and go to court to defend their clients. According to the laws of the Kingdom of Loen, they must maintain an objective attitude, so they cannot directly contact the clients and can only complete the situation through assistants, that is, solicitors.
Collect, everyone is a true legal expert, with outstanding eloquence and extremely high level of debate.
Since the two types of lawyers have their own division of labor, the litigation costs of the parties will inevitably increase. In general cases, the parties must hire two lawyers at the same time; if the case involves royal interests or the case is particularly complex, an additional royal barrister must be hired
, so the parties may have to pay the fees of three lawyers at the same time.
However, for a case like Wood Johnson involving a sum of no more than one pound, a junior solicitor can defend him. However, due to the different division of labor between the two types of lawyers, the quality of solicitor defense in court is somewhat uneven.
Once Johnson loses, the return of the gold-plated harness and compensation are only the most basic requirements. The judge's punishment ranges from being branded or flogged to being exiled to the southern continent or an island. Even decades ago, this was possible.
Sentenced to hanging. Rawls clearly remembers the relevant sentences he read. The most serious one was that a thirteen-year-old boy named Andrew Browning was sentenced to hanging for stealing a spoon.
…………
Adrian Law Firm, 47 Wutong Road, Hillstown.
Rawls had already put on a purple dressing gown embroidered with gold. Although the lawyer's robe was spacious, the hard-turned false collar had made him very uncomfortable for the past half month.
Leaning on the sofa, Rawls gently moved his neck and looked at the young man who was helping him organize the case collection:
"Locke, tell me what you think of Mr. Johnson's case today."
"Mr. Johnson is so pitiful. He just wants his son to go to grammar school, but..."
"Mr. Grant!" Rawls stopped moving his neck and looked at the young man in front of him, "Which law school did you graduate from?"
The young man with blond hair wearing a double-breasted woolen coat was stunned and looked at Rawls blankly: "Uh, it's the Middle Temple lawyer..."
Rawls interrupted Grant again, "Please tell me the difference between a barrister and a solicitor?"
Although he felt overwhelmed by Rawls's sudden temper, Locke Grant knew that as a trainee lawyer, he had to fully accept the difficulties faced by the lawyers he mentored, otherwise it would be difficult to continue on the path of being a lawyer. Not to mention Rawls.
Erls is not only his own instructing lawyer, but also his own boss.
"Barristers are mainly responsible for defense..."
"Yes! Defend! Remember, our job is only to defend, nothing else! You don't need to care about whether the client is pitiful, poor or rich, just or evil!" Rawls simply did the evil thing to the end, and had no intention of letting Locke do it.
Finish what you said.
Locke had froze. In his mind, Rawls, as the owner of a law firm, defended many poor people who could not afford lawyers for almost free. He was definitely a kind and compassionate person. But now
Rawls told him that he didn't care whether the customer was pitiful or not, or even whether the customer was righteous or evil.
Rawls looked at the stunned Locke and softened his tone: "This is not teaching you to become a lawyer without standards, but this is the most basic principle of becoming an excellent barrister."
"How is that possible?" Rock Grant was completely confused. He had no idea what Rawls was talking about.
"What do you think makes a good barrister?"
"Familiar with the law and excellent in eloquence?" Locke tried to get his brain moving, but after hearing what Rawls just said, he felt as if he had been slapped, and his brain was still in a daze.
"Familiarity with the law can make you a legal expert, and excellent eloquence can make you an eloquent. But these are only the prerequisites for becoming a barrister."
"premise?"
"Yes, the premise! And if you want to be an excellent barrister, the ability to find loopholes is essential. Whether it is a legal loophole, a loophole in the opponent's language, or more importantly, a mental loophole!
"
Rawls stood up and poked his heart with his index finger.
Locke touched his heart and murmured: "Spiritual loophole?"
"The work of barristers and solicitors is different. This is because of Luen's tradition. Although many legal professionals support the merger of the two, I don't think so. Once a barrister gets too close to the client, he will understand too much.
If you go too deep, it will be easy to be emotional and your opponent will find loopholes in your soul. Losing and winning are just a matter of seconds."
Looking at Locke, who was still a little confused, Rawls frowned and said, "How did I win this defense?"
"You are... uh... sorry sir." Locke felt like a curly-haired baboon.
"I first made the jury sympathize with Mr. Johnson, then used the pressure of the jury to get Hendler to reveal his agreement with Mr. Johnson, and finally mentioned the big debt Hendler owed because of the repeal of the Corn Bills.
This debt left him completely speechless."
"This is how Hendler lost this case because I caught the loophole in his mind!"
Rawls patted Locke on the shoulder, "You should go back and rest first. I plan to rest for a week. During this time, you can take a look at my previous case collection, and then go to the public security or criminal court to observe a few cases."