The Basics of the Legal System – The law is a crucial part of society, but it’s also labyrinthian in complexity and written in an arcane fashion, making it difficult for the average person to understand. To order to obey the letter of the lawyer, you’ll need to understand it. These are just a few things that everyone should know about the legal system.
Attorneys
When and if you need a lawyer, the odds are that you’ll need a specific kind of attorney. Because the law is so complex, lawyers must choose a specialization in order to provide satisfactory service to clients. For example, you might search for “Las Vegas criminal defense attorneys” in the event that you’re suspected of a crime, but if you’re involved in a landlord tenant dispute, then you’ll want a lawyer that specializes in property law and rental disputes.
On the other hand, companies often hire business lawyers on retainer, and this means not only that the attorney in question specializes in the law that governs commerce, but also that those services are comparable to an insurance policy. Instead of paying the attorney for services rendered, businesses can pay an attorney to be available to them at a later date, if needed.
Civil or Criminal
It’s also important that you understand the distinction between civil and criminal legal battles. Criminal court cases are those that feature the state as the plaintiff, while civil cases will involve a plaintiff and a defendant who are both private citizens. Criminal cases, as the name implies, are matters of the law being broken, while civil cases often relate to disputes between individuals with no clear legal answer. Rather, there is often one correct solution to civil cases, but finding it requires evidence from one or both parties that indicates the truth of the matter.
Criminal defendants will be provided legal counsel if they can’t provide their own, while civil defendants have no such luxury. This is because criminal cases are instigated by an alleged breaking of the law and, as such, is a case of the state vs. an individual. Because of this, the state ensures the right to a free trial by providing legal representation to, for example, poor defendants who can’t afford counsel. This is particularly important because of the correlation between poverty and crime and, with it, the odds that an innocent person can be close enough to a criminal that they can implicate in a crime as the result of their social connections alone.
Futureproofing
An important part of solving a civil court case is documented evidence. Civil cases are typically the result of a broken agreement, and providing basic documentation of the facts is a crucial way for you to convince the court of your innocence and, therefore, your opponent’s guilt. Because of this, it should be your priority to keep diligent records of anything that could potentially be evidence. For example, any time that you do have an agreement with someone that has monetary stakes, make sure to have the agreement written down and signed and make sure to keep track of that document.
Another thing to keep in mind is that if someone threatens you in writing, such as in a text message, that can not only serve as evidence against them during a dispute, but it can also be used to take legal action against them, because threats of violence are illegal. It’s also important to note that you can take such action against someone that has threatened a loved one.
Staying within the confines of the law is often common sense. However, there are also many cases in which the laws themselves or the way in which they were written can lead to confusion or ignorance. That means that an upstanding, law abiding citizen can find themselves in tricky legal situations with no recourse. Knowing the basics of the law is an essential way to stay out of trouble, and these tips can help.
