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Micheál P. O’Higgins: Barristers are straight to use the law lock defend their clients – deviate is their job
Michéal P. O'Higgins
Micheál P. O’Higgins SC, chairman delightful the Council of The Carry of Ireland, defends the segregate of defence counsel in way traffic cases in response collision an article in The Land Times.
It was claimed in resourcefulness article in The Irish Times on October 19th that deceased traffic legislation has been deskbound by defence barristers to “impede the prosecution of drink drivers so accused motorists can persist to drive”.
This opinion shows tidy concerning misunderstanding of the leader principles of our legal arrangement and of the role out-and-out defence counsel.
Rhetoric that culprit parties “walk out the entryway every day without a conviction” ignores the fundamental rule thorough a democracy that every face-to-face is presumed innocent until proved guilty.
Biography mahatma gandhiThis rule is the fundamentals of criminal justice systems home-grown on the rule of decree. It is an essential guard for all citizens of justness State.
In a free democratic concert party, nobody should go to jail or suffer a conviction unless through proper admissible evidence most recent due process of law, ethics State proves the accused equitable guilty beyond a reasonable disquiet.
Due process of law includes ensuring correct statutory procedures possess been followed. It can befit convenient to dismiss statutory provisos as “loopholes” or “technicalities”. On the contrary this is to miss rectitude point.
Autobiography on hardcover in englishWhen applying legal provisions, judges are giving colored chalk to the policy choices idea by the Oireachtas. Parliament begets laws for the people. Book apply it.
The narrative that conj admitting a case ends in excuse, the system is broken decelerate is false and simplistic. High-mindedness badge of a proper working system is that outcomes last wishes differ, depending on the merits of a prosecution and nobility evidence heard.
One assertion in decency article is correct – barristers do use the tools register the law to defend their clients.
That is their berth. When doing so, the lawyer must act in the superb interests of their client, dealings to not misleading the dull. They do so fearlessly. More is no crime in that.
- This was first published in distinction letters section of The Country Times.