Essay about How To Defend Someone In Court And Kaz Wilson S Experince

Submitted By kingzac34
Words: 549
Pages: 3

How to defend someone in court
Mostly anyone can be selected to counsel someone in a court of law. Most small claims courts restrict the use of lawyers as legal representation. Most of the work takes place before any court date, when all evidence must be submitted to the court and both counsels outline their positions. On the actual court date, in most cases the prosecution will outline their case against the defendant and then the defendant can argue their innocence. During opening statements to the court, this is not the time to issue objections. After opening statements the prosecution will open its case and maybe call witnesses. The defense counsel will have the chance to question any witnesses. You can question any witness within reasonable grounds, you must always have relevance to the matter at hand. The judge will not be impressed if you try to question a witness about anything not relevant i.e. unrelated events from many years ago, political views, and private life. Leading questions will also be thrown out, for example 'The weather on that day was cloudy, wet and windy wasn't it?' This would be a clear example trying to lead a witness. In defending someone you will be allowed to call witness or the defendant but you cannot announce a witness to the court-it is not TV. In most cases witnesses need to be summoned to appear and the prosecution must be allowed notice of any evidence or witnesses you intend to produce-you are allowed the same procedures. An endless parade of character witnesses will not be tolerated, again you must stick to the case at hand. At this time your defendant can chose whether to give evidence or not. Having chosen this the defendant must be prepared to be questioned by the prosecution; the defendant can refuse to answer any questions but must accept such actions can prejudice their case. Finally, both teams can give closing statements to the court before the verdict is considered. I would always counsel that anyone going to