JUDGES
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Judges are often charged with the ethical supervision of attorneys. The potential problem is that judges are most often attorneys themselves and may be charged with disciplining persons they may be familiar with. Write an essay of 750 to 1,000 words addressing the following:
Explain whether it is problematic to have judges being charged with the supervision of attorneys.
Discuss why it is judges need to ensure that attorneys conduct themselves ethically and with integrity. Might having a Christian worldview impact the actions of judges and attorneys regarding ethics? Explain. (comp. 4.1)
Apply ethical models to the potential problem of judges disciplining attorneys. Do these models support the continued paradigm of judges sentencing lawyers? Explain.
Apply ethical models to the potential problem of judges disciplining attorneys. Do these models support the continued paradigm of judges sentencing lawyers? Explain.
Some people within a courtroom play an administrative role regarding court proceedings. We have the judge, the jurors, the attorney general, the court clerk, and several others. In this case, we are speaking about the judges and prosecutors within a courtroom (Kim, Spohn, & Hedberg, 2015). They play a massive role in ensuring that the appropriate punishment is imposed whenever sentencing someone. Beginning with the judges, all of their duties are important and passed on to them by the Chief Justice. A judge’s most important responsibility is overseeing court hearings. As described in the readings, a judge is like a referee. They have the final say in most matters of the courtroom, not involving a jury. They listen to the prosecution and defense arguments. They assess all admissible evidence in the cases. This can include DNA evidence, an established timeline of where the victim was, listening to witnesses, etc. They use all of that information and make a justified decision of the defendant’s guilt or innocence (Court, 2017).
At the beginning of a hearing, the charges are assessed and read off by the prosecution. The prosecution determines the costs depend upon the crime and criminal history (Kim, Spohn, & Hedberg, 2015). In regards to offering alternative punishments, the prosecution team looks at the person’s criminal background. They verify whether the person has a severe criminal record, if they had committed the same crime before, their involvement in the crime committed, etc. In the courtroom, they tend to monitor the defendant’s behavior and how they react to questions and statements made within the courtroom. If pronounced guilty, alternative sentences are offered toward the end of the trial, such as probation, house arrest, community service, counseling, and other alternatives. They look at the age of the defendant as well in determining the appropriate sentence for an offender.
For example, you have a 15-year-old African-American boy who has just killed his father. He shot him while he was sleeping. When investigating the incident, it is found that the father always beat on the boy. The boy has bruises all over his body, and there are records of the boy going in and out of the hospital due to bodily injury. How would you charge this young man (Tam, Abrams, Freisthler, & Ryan, 2016)? He has no criminal record, and he doesn’t seem to be a danger to society. He could have pleaded self-defense if he hadn’t shot the father while sleeping.
One option is to be sentenced to serve time in a juvenile detention facility because he did commit murder. This, in turn, might cause him to become an offender of society once he is migrated back into the community. As an alternative, he could be asked to have a psych evaluation done to determine whether the boy is mentally stable to relocated back into society. If approved, he could be required to adhere to counseling and house arrest, besides school, while the counselor reports back to the courts to show progress. The criminal justice system, specifically corrections, must supervise offenders incarcerated and in the communities. As prison overcrowding has increased, alternative punishments have become more popular to reduce incarceration populations.
The judge’s role of disciplining an attorney can be analyzed from the judge’s court powers to sanction and judicial attitudes and approaches towards regulating an attorney’s conduct (Judith A. McMorrow, 2004), with supreme court judges being empowered to control the behaviors of the law profession. It can be said that much litigation involving attorneys occur outside the courtroom, but judges, through their powers and sanctions they can set norms for the out-court litigations through signals that they send and sanctions they impose for the conducts that occurs during motions or post and pre-trial activities (Jackie A. Gardina, 2004).
The objective is to resist attempting to preach the professionalism concept about the best practices and not be misperceived as having a regulation dimension. Still, other vehicles can help accomplish the objective like the Chief Justices’ conference for National Action Plan on Professionalism (Conference of Chief Justices, National Action Plan on Lawyer Conduct and Professionalism, 1999). Like in using Rules 11 and 37, for example, judges have systematic procedures and substantive rules to deal with an attorney’s conduct issues during litigation, or a judge can too supplement the rules with own responses in line with the court’s power the judge is exposed to (Judith A. McMorrow, 2004).
The models support the paradigm since it is contained in the professional conduct and the guidelines driving the law profession. The models are said to be grounded on the law, history, and tradition of the law profession, making them straightforward and persuasive. The law doctrine recorded in the law books like the separation of powers and inherent court power has given the judges authority to monitor and enforce the lawyers’ rules. However, as per some scholars, this authority should be looked into deeply to authenticate its necessity and advantage to the profession (Eli Wald, 2010).
Reference
The court, U. S. (2017). Federal Alternative-to-Incarceration Court Programs. United States Sentencing Commission, 5-14. Retrieved from American Bar Association: https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_education/resources/law_related_education_network/how_courts_work/judge_role.html
Kim, B., Spohn, C., & Hedberg, E. C. (2015). Federal Sentencing as a Complex Collaborative Process: Judges, Prosecutors, Judge-Prosecutor Dyads, and Disparity in Sentencing. Criminology Journal, 53(4), 597-623.
Tam, C. C., Abrams, L., Freisthler, B., & Ryan, J. P. (2016). Juvenile Justice Sentencing: Do Gender and Child Welfare Involvement Matter? Children and Youth Services, 60-65.
Wald, E. (2010). Should judges regulate lawyers? McGeorge L. REv., 42, 149.
Judith A. McMorrow, Jackie Giardina, and Salvatore Ricciardone. “Judicial Attitudes Toward Confronting Attorney Misconduct: A View From the Reported Decisions.” Hofstra Law Review 32, (2004): 1425-1474
CONFERENCE OF CHIEF JUSTICES, NATIONAL ACTION PLAN ON LAWYER CONDUCT AND PROFESSIONALISM (1999):
http://ccj.ncsc.dni.us/natlplanl NatlActionPlan.html.