I have a question about lawyers please try to answer?
lawyers? is it really anything like what happens on law and order, are the defense lawyers really trying as hard as they can to get murderers out of jail. i want to be a lawyer when i grow up but i dont want to have to sleep with the fact that im releasing murderers. what about the district attorney's lawyers, how hard is it to because one of those. and do they get paid the same? how much do district attorneys get paid?
Answers:
Yes, if you take on a case as a defense attorney, you must do everything (legal) that you can to get your client acquitted, or to get them the least punishment -- that's what a defense attorney does and what they are ethically required to do under the standards for zealous representation.
If you don't want to put yourself in the position of getting people out of jail, you have two options -- don't do criminal defense work, or limit yourself to the very rare few cases where you believe the person is actually innocent.
District Attorneys (and their staff) are state/govt employees -- which means they get paid very little on a relative scale. But they are also usually in need of help, so you can likely get a junior associate position out of lawschool -- but expect very low pay compared to most lawyers in private practice.
Have you considered civil defense work? Similar style and skills to criminal defense, but jail is not a factor.
Firstly, you don't have to be a criminal lawyer, you could do family work, corporate, real estate, wills and estates, civil work.
Secondly, all lawyers are called upon to do things that may conflict with their morals, from prosecutors to criminal lawyers to all other lawyers. Family lawyers bring motions to take children away from decent parents at the requests of clients all the time.
Thirdly, defence lawyers are an important part of the system. The prosecutor argues one side and the defense argues the other, it is the judge or jury who interprets the arguments of both sides and determines the outcome. Without defense lawyers innocent people could be railroaded. I mean you hear of innocent people being convicted even within this system, so imagine what would happen without it.
I don't know about the states, I am in Canada, but it is quite easy to become a prosecutor. They are paid ok but quite overworked. Defence attorneys pay really depends on how good you are and how hard you work. I am a legal assistant and I know several lawyers who make less money than I do.
Even representing criminals you can sleep well at night knowing you are contributing to the justice system.
Pay for prosecutors varies widely, from state to state and county to county. In the large counties of my state, a prosecutor with 5 years on the job can make about $120K per year. In small counties of some states, I know prosecutors making $40K and are glad to get it. Defense lawyers can be purely private, or private and getting paid by the court or they can be working for wages as public defenders. There is no limit to how much (or how little) the private lawyers can make, but public defenders get about the same as prosecutors. BTW, even as a prosecutor you may have to argue a position that you don't like. I know a prosecutor who is opposed to the death penalty but routinely has to argue for it.
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