A Lawyer

Introduction

A lawyer is a man or woman trained to deal with legal problems of all kinds. Lawyers counsel their clients as to their rights and responsibilities under the law. Lawyers defend the interest of their client by taking legal action when the person's life or property is threatened. They also support their client when action is taken against him or her. Most judges are lawyers.

For people lawyers appear to be a guide who can lead them through a strange land. In addition to training, lawyers have good reason to understand the law better then most people. Lawyers take over or exercise control over the legislature that make the laws.

History of The Law

Even in prehistoric time their were laws. They were passed down to generations by mouth. If someone is assassinated another person, it weakened the group. The murderer would moreover be killed, kicked out of the group, or have to take care of the family of the person they murdered (Fincher pp 90-120).

In France for the period of the Middle Ages, it was not uncommon to force an accused criminal to submit to a 'trial by combat.' The person who was accused of the crime and the person who accused them of the crime fought. The person who mislaid was held to be guilty.

The laws of ancient greeks

Draco Draco was hired to write new laws because there were thousands of poor people who could not earn a living because of debts they owed. Draco set up a specific legal system that had courts to deal with all cases. Draco gave people the right to vote who had never been able to vote before (Fincher pp 90-120).

The problem with Draco's laws was that the punishments were too strict. Death was the punishment for almost any crime, even petty theft. Any man who did not have a job, could not vote. If the man with no job was from a foreign country, he was killed. Any law today that is harsh would be called Draconian because of Draco's cruel punishments.

Solan

There seemed to be a revolt forming because of Draco's laws. Solan was hired to make new laws. Solan was a wealthy man and was known for being honest. He traveled to other countries to see what kind of laws the people had there.

Solan set up a new government that had a Council and an Assembly. The Council had four hundred members that were elected by people. Citizens who wanted to participate made up the Assembly. The trial by jury Solan created was different than ours today. Six thousand people were selected to be on the jury for one year. The number of jurors in any case was no less than five hundred. Sometimes there were as many as two thousand jurors at a trial.

Any person could accuse another person of a crime by putting the charge in writing. The accuser acted as a prosecutor and the man on trial defended himself. The judge and the jurors knew little ...