Law and Society

Running Head: BUSINESS AND CORPORATION LAW 0
Law and Society
Elements of The Legal System
2/15/2019
Student’s Name

Law and Society 1
In a general term, criminal courts can be understood as the government institutions,
which identify the unlawful individuals and provide them punishments according to the nature of
the crime. Criminal courts ensure the preservation of civil rights and entitlements of an
individual (Assy, 2015). These courts have attorneys, parties, and jury. Jury decides the final
decision of the case.
Both Prosecuting and defense attorneys are lawyers who take the part in a trial on the
criminal cases. A prosecuting attorney is a person who ensures proving that the defendant
satisfies all the pre-requisite of being responsible for the subjective crime in a case. In order
words to say, he/she represent the state in criminal matters and put the arguments in against of
accused person in order to held the same criminal if he/she actually committed a crime. The
function of the prosecuting attorney is different on local and federal levels. A defense attorney
on the other side, represent the defendant in a case (Cassel & Bernstein, 2013). In general, the
defendant hires a defense attorney, but if the same is not able to pay the charges of the same, the
court appoints a public defender, who further represents the defendant in the court. The lead
function of a defense attorney is to argue on the facts of the case and law and to prove the
innocence of his/her client i.e. defendant (Margarianlaw.com, 2017).

Law and Society 2
Moving the discussion towards their obligation, this is to mention that they are required
to do their jobs in the best interest of the parties for that they work. It means that where
prosecution attorney has an obligation to act for the best interest of law and state, it becomes the
obligation of the defense attorney to save his/her client from the unfair allegations.
Criminal courts have certain models of working. Two of them are the adversarial and
consensual models. The adversarial model is the one where both of the attorneys i.e. prosecution
and defense attorney go head to head in a battle and present the evidence before the judge. This
requires many efforts. The model believes that out of the arguments between these two people,
the truth will emerge about the innocence or guilt of the defendant and in this manner, justice
will be done. On the different side, the consensual model can be understood as a model, which
highlights cooperation among defense attorneys, prosecution attorney, and judges for the purpose
of expedite the case proceedings (Barkan and Bryjak, 2011).
In the presented case, both the attorneys were in an argument and were presenting their
witness before the courts. In such a manner, it is clear that an adversarial model of working was
there in a given situation.
The jury is responsible to decide the guilt or innocence of accused based on facts of the
case and evidence presented by the lawyers. This is the lead role, which a jury in criminal cases