Legal Ethics
Paper instructions:
The œadversary system is the fundamental concept behind American jurisprudence. It is assumed by our system that when you have 2 people on opposite sides who are
trying to win, the party that has the truth on its side will ultimately prevail. Of course, as we all know, it doesn’t always work that way; but that’s our system.
Many Continental European systems use the œcivil law method. Under that system, all the lawyers in the case are responsible to help in the œsearch for the truth.
If one lawyer has information that would help the other side or comes to agree with the other side’s view, he or she has the right and/or duty to say so. Which system
do you think is more effective and why? Also, do you see any constitutional problems with applying the civil law system to the U.S.?
For this assignment, in addition to answering the above questions, I would like you to find at least one case (which can be done most easily from Lexis) in which
the limits of the adversary system were discussed or tested. The subject matter of the case itself can be anything, but the focus should be whether an attorney or
firm’s responsibility to a client or court outweighs some other œgreater or œmoral responsibility. For this case, please briefly discuss the ethical issue and how
the court resolved it.