Seeking Legal Assistance

It’s scary enough just being in an accident. The adrenaline rush from being in danger, the possibility of injury or the pain from immediate hurt—you’re immersed in the now. Once the accident is over though, you have to decide what to do about it, and as scary as the accident is, it can be a lot scarier contemplating seeking compensation for that accident.

The law is a complex beast, almost impossible for people to make heads or tails of without training, which is why there are people who have that training. These are the lawyers of the world, butt of so many jokes and negative stereotypes, yet patiently swimming through all that legal mumbo-jumbo so that when people are seeking legal assistance, they can find it.

How to do so? There are many options. Anyone who drives around any metropolitan area can see the billboards and buses plastered with advertisements for lawyers and legal help.

Still, most people want more confidence than that which an ad imparts, and that means local presence. Some flash-in-the-pan New York lawyer may not inspire much confidence when he first shows up in Michigan: the accident lawyer Michigan residents want is a long-time Michigan citizen. They are more likely to know the ins and outs of the Michigan state law and its people.

Residents will look to each other and the stories they can tell that testify to the lawyer’s character and performance. Seeking legal assistance is a difficult process, but it is much easier with someone who has proved his trustworthiness.

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Types of Cases in the Legal Environment

"The Old Bailey, Known Also as the Centra...

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When opposing parties have a dispute that needs to be resolved by a court or some other type of legal process, this dispute is known as a legal case. Main characteristics of legal cases are that they are either civil or criminal in nature and typically have an accuser or plaintiff and a defendant.

In a civil case, someone files a complaint  in court, which is a written document of a wrongdoing or suffering the plaintiff has undergone due to an act of the accused who requests that some resolution to this action be taken in the form of a penalty or some other type of judicial action. The resolution can be in the form of a financial agreement or a requirement that the defendant refrain from performing the action which was the cause for the legal case. If the accuser wins the case, the plaintiff receives nothing but if the plaintiff wins the case, then the accuser must perform the actions determined by the court. A civil case does not always require a court trial and can be resolved through arbitration or a settlement can be reached by the parties.

In a criminal case, a person is suspected of committing a crime and is charged with the offense by a prosecutor or district attorney or by indictment in a grand jury. The outcomes of criminal cases are different from those of civil cases and depend on the severity of the crime committed. Some jurisdictions may impose capital punishment, or death. Another outcome is being sentenced to jail, the length of sentencing again being determined by the severity of the crime. Government supervision can be another outcome in which the convicted person is subject to house arrest and may be required to perform some kind of community service as part of the parole process.

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Historic Laws

Code of laws of Hammurabi

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There are many laws which have been developed over time that have paved the way for laws passed in more recent times.

One of the first set of laws known to be established was the Code of Hammurabi created in the period 1795-1750 BC by King Hammurabi, who ruled over Babylon, the world’s first metropolis. It is one of the earliest known examples of a ruler proclaiming a body of law to his people. The highlight of the Code focuses on retaliatory punishments wherein a person who does something wrong is punished accordingly. There are 282 clauses in the laws that cover slavery, theft, marriage, and debts and the punishments associated with breaking those clauses. The laws themselves are carved into a monument made of black stone that was eight feet high and designed to be seen by the public.

The first written code of laws for Greece was created by a Greek citizen named Draco in the year 621 BC. In his laws, the punishment for most offenses was death, which was considered to be very severe at the time. This has led to the use of the word “draconian” to mean any unreasonably harsh law. However, these laws are significant in that they introduced the concept of the state having the exclusive role of punishing citizens accused of commiting crimes rather than private citizens doing so.

One set of laws that is considered to be the foundation of all modern public and private law is the Twelve Tables, created by ten Roman men in 450 BC and designed to be the laws that governed the entire Roman population. The Twelve Tables originally contained ten laws but two more laws were added at a later time. The laws outlined the public prosecution of crimes and developed a system in which people who were injured could pursue some kind of reparation from those who abused them. The laws protected lower class citizens from abuses from those in the higher classes, particularly with regard to the payment of debts. The laws also established that laws must be written and justice could not be left solely in the hands of judges to decide.

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