WHAT IS A CRIMINAL LAWYERS’ ROLE?

 

Criminal lawyers represent people from all walks of life.

Unfortunately, movies and TV shows have portrayed criminal lawyers in a bad light, prompting members of the public asking the question criminal lawyers get asked too often, “but how can you defend a criminal?”, or “how can you defend a guilty person?”.

Too often we hear about a media coverage of either someone charged with a serious alleged offence or how a criminal lawyer has got his/her client off a charge due to a “technicality” or “loop hole” in the law.

The job of a criminal lawyer is both difficult and rewarding.

Their clients range from taxi drivers, struggling single parents, troubled children, to corporations, directors, bankers, including the rich and famous.

A criminal lawyers job is not just to defend an accused person. It goes far beyond that.

A criminal lawyer’s role is generally governed by a set of values and rules, which have been reflected in the Legal Profession Uniform Law Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules 2015.

The Solicitors’ conduct rules provide a foundation on how lawyers should ethically conduct themselves as practicing lawyers in Australia. This includes:

1. To act in the best interest of their clients in any matter which the lawyer represents the client.
2. To be honest and courteous in all dealings, in the course of working as a lawyer.
3. To deliver legal services competently, diligently and as promptly as reasonably possible.
4. To avoid any compromise to his/her dignity and professional independence; and
5. To comply with the Solicitors’ conduct rules and the law.

A lawyer also has a paramount duty to the administration of justice and the court (rule 3 Solicitors Conduct Rules).

Our criminal justice system is built on the principle that we rather have a guilty person be let free than an innocent person jailed.

To reflect this principle in practice, for an accused person to be found guilty, the prosecution is required to prove, with sufficient evidence, to the court that the accused person committed the offence “beyond reasonable doubt”.

Up until such time, the accused person is presumed innocent.

In line with the same principle, the accused person is given the benefit of the doubt.

This means, if the extent of the evidence shows that an accused person ‘possibly’ committed the crime, the court would be required to return a verdict of “not guilty”, resulting in dismissal of the charge(s) and acquittal of the accused.