What I think of the legal system. week 3

The legal system is made up of 3 parts: 1) A legislative branch, who pass the laws that represent the will of the people; 2) An executive branch, who ensures that all enacted legislation is enforced; 3) And a judicial branch who determines if there has been violations of the law. This form of law is called checks and balances, meaning that each serves a purpose so that not one of the branches has more power than another. For example: The executive branch can veto bills from the legislative, but the legislative can override the veto. Because of the system of checks and balances I believe that our legal system is great in doing the purpose it was created for. Equality among each other is something that has to be present or the branches would run amok arguing over who is right or has more power.

“No one person can possibly know the entire body of law.” (Essentials of Business Law, Liuzzo, pg 3)

This quote basically rules out one body of government by saying that they can’t do everything alone. The different branches of government are there to help each other out, because it would be impossible for one branch to pass a law, enforce it, and determine if something is in violation of that law. So with that said, the legal system in which the United States has created is one of the best in the world. But like any other system, there are ways to defeat it and there are loop-holes. But these are minor to the fact that the way our checks and balances system works is because of the security in which it operates. One branch must abide by another’s rules, and vice-versa, and this makes it great.

Myspace Hoax - week 2

In 2006, a neighborhood family created a fake Myspace profile to obtain information about what a girl was saying about their own children. The victim in this story is Megan Meier, a 13 year old girl. The profile was a person named Josh Evans, who told her he was born in Florida and had recently moved to the nearby community of O'Fallon. He said he was homeschooled, and didn't yet have a phone number in the area to give her. So they exchanged messages through myspace daily. The mother of the family who created this fake person created Josh's profile because she wanted to gain Megan's confidence to know what Megan was saying about her own child online. During these events, some messages were sent to Megan saying that he no longer wanted to be friends with her because he had heard she didn’t treat her friends nicely. A later message said that the world would be better without her.

The next day Megan was found in her room and had committed suicide. Through these events, the family responded by saying they had no intent of causing emotional or physical harm to Megan with this hoax . So with malicious intent, the family in question claims that they had no intent for Megan to kill herself and also there were no threats. Considering this statement, Police there, however, have said they didn't file any charges against the family in part because there was no applicable state law. But are being charged with accessing computers without authorization, and also violating the myspace term of service.

My personal opinion is that the family should be found guilty to an extent. The family did not intend emotional harm, but the fact that this went on through a period of over a month caused Megan to become emotionally attached to the fake “Josh” profile, and because of the devastating messages sent to her, caused events for her to commit suicide. They can’t be convicted of murder or manslaughter, but can be convicted of emotional distress to the victim and victim’s family.

Lawyers/Attorneys

Lawyers are people who do a service to the people to help with certain legal actions. There are many different types of lawyers, some good, some bad, but the purpose of the lawyer is to help the client in whatever situations arise. Having been raised by two attorneys as my parents, I am somewhat biased as how my thoughts on the subject is. I believe that they are needed on many occasions because they have the knowledge and experience that justifies the use of their time and effort. And when it comes to lawyers or attorneys, they come in many flavors, such as family law, criminal law, corporate law, and real estate law, among others. Each of these different types of lawyers are experts in their respective fields. But there are two sides to this equation. There are plaintiff attorneys who (in example context) are the ones blaming the other. And then there are the defense attorneys who try to defend their client from being blamed. While most people have mixed feelings about either side, such as the person who has the defense attorney do not like the plaintiff attorney and vice versa, each serve a purpose to withhold.

Many people do not like attorneys because of their ethics, and that is because of the harmful media spouting anything they can to make them look like the bad guys. While on many occasions, this may hold true because of the lust for power and greed for money. Attorneys are paid very well for their profession, and the ones that get paid more than others, regrettably, try to win at all costs, often hurting their clients reputation or even their own. But my opinion on the matter is that lawyers or attorneys, however you call them, are a needed profession due to the fact that the majority of the public is unaware or ignorant to the legal matters at hand, and they are here to help you.

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