PT116.S4.P1.Q3 > Analytics

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Is it necessary for defense lawyers to believe that the clients they defend are innocent of the charges against them. ███

Question · Must defense lawyers believe in their clients’ innocence?

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Legal Scholars · No

Lawyer's only job is to provide the best defense possible. It's not their job to judge their clients. Their job is to advocate for their clients.

Critique (of Legal Scholars) · Lawyers have other obligations as well

Lawyers are officers of the court and hence have obligations (e.g., not lying) to the court.

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Critique Continued · If a lawyer knows their client is guilty, then they should not deny this

They should not attempt to prove their innocence. Instead, make the best case for the client and argue for leniency.

Critique Continued · Lawyer's obligation to the court and society ultimately benefits the defendant too

The defendant deserves a lawyer who truly believes in their innocence. Lawyers can simply refuse cases where they don't believe in their clients' innocence.

Passage Style

Critique or debate

Which one of the following █████████ █████ ████ █████████ █████ █ █████████ ███████████ █████████ ███ ███ ██ ███ ████████

In keeping with ████ █████ ███████ ███████ ██████ ████ █████ █████ ████ ███ ███████████ ██ ████████ ███████████ █████████ ███ ████████████

This is the best answer. In the last paragraph, the author notes that lawyers should be selective about who they defend, try to defend honestly, and try to analyze the facts correctly.

83%

Therefore, the practice ██ ███ ███████ ███████ ████████ ██ ████ █████████████████ ███ ███████ █████████ ███ ██ ██████████ ███████

There’s no suggestion that the author thinks the practice of law is morally dubious. And in any case, this isn’t related to the point at the end of the paragraph.

Consequently, the defendant's █████ ██ █████ ██████████████ ██████ ████ ████ ██ █████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ███ ███ ███████ ████████ ████████ ██████████████ ██ ███ █████

The “severity of the alleged crime” is not brought up in the passage as something that should influence a defendant’s right to legal representation.

Thus, the lawyers' ███████████ ███ ██████████████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████ █████ ████████████ █████ ██ ████████ █████████ ███ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ██████████

Proving one’s “professional worth” is not suggested anywhere to be a third obligation of lawyers.

Therefore, judges or █████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ ██████ ███████████ ███████ █████████ █████████ ███ █████ █████████ ████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ████████ █████████ ██ ██████

The last paragraph concerns a lawyer’s obligations. It doesn’t make sense to conclude with a statement about what judges should do.

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PrepTest 116 - Section 4 - Passage 1 - Question 3

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PrepTest 116 - Section 4 - Passage 1 - Question 3

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