According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, one definition of advocate is “a person who argues for the cause of another person in a court of law.” (Merriam-Webster, n.d.) With that being the definition, acting as an advocate and arguing on behalf of their clients is an essential role that attorneys play. This seems to be especially true since the U.S. legal system is setup to be adversarial. In Law in our Lives: An Introduction, David Friedrichs states, “the courts in the [U.S.] criminal justice system are formally organized to operate according to an adversary model, with a “contest” between the prosecution and the defense.” (Friedrichs, 2012) The U.S. also seems to have an adversarial model when it comes to civil law issues. Friedrichs writes that civil law, which is the term the U.S. uses for its system of private law, handles issues when one party complains to have been wronged by another party. Here, again, the U.S. system seems to pit people against each other in an adversarial way. Perhaps the most obvious indicator of the adversarial model in the U.S. is the fact that all legal cases are written as either U.S. or state v. offender in criminal cases or party v. party in civil cases. Even the way we identify our legal cases suggests the parties involved are versing each other. With this being the working model in the United States, one of the main roles attorneys fulfill will always seemingly be one of an advocate for their
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, one definition of advocate is “a person who argues for the cause of another person in a court of law.” (Merriam-Webster, n.d.) With that being the definition, acting as an advocate and arguing on behalf of their clients is an essential role that attorneys play. This seems to be especially true since the U.S. legal system is setup to be adversarial. In Law in our Lives: An Introduction, David Friedrichs states, “the courts in the [U.S.] criminal justice system are formally organized to operate according to an adversary model, with a “contest” between the prosecution and the defense.” (Friedrichs, 2012) The U.S. also seems to have an adversarial model when it comes to civil law issues. Friedrichs writes that civil law, which is the term the U.S. uses for its system of private law, handles issues when one party complains to have been wronged by another party. Here, again, the U.S. system seems to pit people against each other in an adversarial way. Perhaps the most obvious indicator of the adversarial model in the U.S. is the fact that all legal cases are written as either U.S. or state v. offender in criminal cases or party v. party in civil cases. Even the way we identify our legal cases suggests the parties involved are versing each other. With this being the working model in the United States, one of the main roles attorneys fulfill will always seemingly be one of an advocate for their