Legal Aid and Advice

Since 1950s the services of solicitors and barristers 1) _________ (make) available by the system called Legal Aid for those who 2)______ (can ) not afford them. Though many legal tasks 3) _________ (can ) only 4) _________ (provide ) by professionally qualified solicitors and barristers, preliminary legal advice or information is available from a wide range of other sources.

Law Centres are grant-funded institutions that 5) _________ (provide) free and independent legal advice and can even represent people in legal proceedings. They 6) _________ (specialize) in certain areas of law such as immigration and nationality, housing and homelessness, employment rights, and sex and race discrimination.

There 7) _________ (be) now an important trend towards the resolution of problems without resort to the legal system. This movement 8) _________ (refer) to as Alternative Dispute Resolution ( ADR ) and 9) _________ (deal) mainly with civil law issues.

The reasons why the formal legal system seems to be unsatisfactory are:

1) Delay ( major delay still 10) _________ (occur) when very formal court procedures take place);

2) Cost ( the involvement of qualified lawyers inevitably 11) _________ (result) in high costs);

3) Complexity ( the complexity of procedure 12) _________ (make) it difficult for people to make out their own case).

ADR 13) _________ (involve) the solution of a dispute by an independent arbitrator. That person may or may not be a lawyer. This system 14)_____(have) certain advantages : it 15) _________ (involve) less formal procedures and so is quicker and cheaper. It can also take place without publicity which may help to produce greater reconciliation at the end of the process.

Discussion and Creative Writing

Study the following statements, taken from opinion poll on lawyers’ greediness. Say if you share/oppose these opinions. Justify your point of view. Quote the most interesting statements.

Write an essay on one of the following issues.

1 “Lawyers are parasites on the taxpayers’ backs.”

2 “Lawyers are like rhinoceroses: thick skinned, short-sighted, and always ready to charge.”

3 “Entry into legal profession has been made more difficult than necessary so that there won’t be too many people competing for the work.”

4 “The publicity only surrounds lawyers because we need them so much.”

5 “Lawyers often exploit the misery of those whose interests they are supposed to defend.”

6 “The legal men should be avoided at all costs if you want to keep some of your wealth and sanity.”

7 “Humankind has embraced capitalism as its favorite religion. Greed is commandment number one.”

8 “There’s nothing wrong with charging a rich tariff to those who can afford it.”

9 “Justice is not for sale to the highest bidder.”

Part 2: Text A

Law Firms

Most towns in the United States have small firms of attorneys who are in daily contact with ordinary people, giving advice and acting on matters such as consumer affairs, traffic accident disputes and contracts for the sale of land. Some may also prepare defences for clients accused of crimes. However, in both the United States and other industrialized countries, lawyers are becoming more and more specialized. Working in small firms, lawyers now tend to restrict themselves to certain kinds of work, and lawyers working in large law firms or employed in the law department of a large commercial enterprise work on highly specific areas of law. One lawyer may be employed by a mining company just to prepare contracts for the supply of coal. Another may work for a newspaper advising the editors on libel matters. Another may be part of a Wall Street firm of over a hundred lawyers who specialize in advising stockbrokers on share transactions.

Text B

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 883