The Work of the Advocate

Download or read book The Work of the Advocate written by Byron Kosciusko Elliott and published by General Books. This book was released on 2012-02 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE WORK IN COURT CHAPTER I. CONTINUANCE. No crime is so great, no proceedings so instantaneous, but that upon sufficient grounds, the trial may be put off.?Lord Mansfield in King v. D'Eon, 1 Bla. 509, 514. Practical Suggestions. The most successful advocate, as a general rule, is he who is equipped by thorough preparation to try his cause when it is called. There are, however, cases where a speedy trial is not desirable. A defendant in a criminal prosecution generally profits by delay. This is peculiarly true in cases where the crime has aroused indignation and there is a popular clamor for conviction. Violent emotions are calmed .and quieted by time. Prosecutors who know their duty will bring to trial those accused of crime with as little delay as possible, while the advocate of the accused in most cases will secure, if he can justly do so, as much delay for his client as the law awards. Of course, no honorable advocate will, although he will fearlessly do his duty, unmoved by the clamors of press or people, resort to unfair measures to secure delay, still he will avail himself of all that the law allows. There are civil actions where delay is desirable, but it is better, in the majority of cases, to try the cause on the day appointed. No rule of general application can here be stated that will be of practical utility, for whether a civil cause shall be promptly tried or be postponed depends, in no small measure, upon the nature of the particular case. The advocate who habitually seeks continuances is generally a very careless one, or else a very timid one. In either case he is not of the kind that wins success. If he does not feel strong in himself and in his cause, the chances are very largely against him. The advocate who shrinks from the contest and seeks...