Defending My Own: Why lawyers are not 'liars'

When the news of Captain Maxwell Mahama’s death broke, the whole nation was with him. Everyone expected the harshest punishment would be handed the perpetrators without any delay or consideration having regards to the manner in which they committed their offence. People recalled the military regimes when offenders like Capt. Mahama 'killers' were often immediately “eliminated” even without court trial. The women in our compound house lamented everyday how they wished it were ‘those days'.

The worst lamentation about Capt. Maxwell Mahama’s death rocked our compound one day when we heard in the news, “lawyer for the accused persons”. People wondered why a lawyer would even attempt to defend “those heartless killers”. “This one de3 we have all seen it done live. It will be difficult for any lawyer to ' lie' again”, one woman said. Another wondered, “Eei! These lawyers do not really fear God. So after this pathetic killing, lawyers are still trying to defend them? Lawyer wei de3 Nyame b3 tua no ka” (God punish this lawyer). They gossiped without minding I had an interest in their conversation, a lawyer-to-be.

It is not news the fact that society generally perceives lawyers to be liars in all endeavours. In other words, there's an unfortunate misconception that what lawyers do for a living is lie, and that the best lawyers lie as easily as they breathe. How way too difficult it has become to convince my friends and peers that the practice of law doesn't require a skill in lying!

At some point in one's life you will be criticized, called names, perhaps based on your profession. Those critics may have their own good reasons, perhaps based on their past experiences, and in this case through their dealings, with lawyers. Sometimes it will be difficult to accept them.

People often accuse lawyers of lying because they're advocates, constantly working for the benefit of their clients and their own selfish interest without minding the truth. Perhaps you might have heard over and over the everyday saying that, “lawyers are liars” or better still, “good liars make good lawyers”. As a lawyer or law student, what do I do when my friends, family and the society at large refer to me by such “derogatory name(s)”? Most lawyers laugh over them maybe because they get busy things to do than to spend so much time explaining or justifying their profession which is not understood by the common man.

Such societal misconceptions should be subjected to specific scrutiny rather than rejected in toto.

What makes people think lawyers are liars?

There are always a few bad nuts in any profession. The legal profession is not an exception. I am not attempting to deliver a lecture on how law is practiced. But a little of such lecture is needed to erase the primitive perception or impression society holds about lawyers.

The work of a lawyer is basically about doing what society has brought into existence or decided upon. It is a defined system which they follow. Lawyers follow rules, principles and precedents. When man was in a ‘state of nature’, there weren’t laws. Life was short and brutish. Society was characterized by the survival of the fittest theory.

Then men decided that they make laws for themselves. Men laid down procedures, rules and principles to follow in latter cases of similar facts. The lawyer calls this precedent. This doctrine is based on stare decisis. That is the standing by of previous decisions. Once a point of law has been decided in a particular case, that law must be applied in all future cases containing the same or similar material facts. Maybe that was how the women in our compound house understood the doctrine. Yes they were right. But it should be noted that sometimes we depart from bad precedents. In those days of military rule, the rule of law was not applicable to them. The kind of instant justice that characterized military regimes has no place in a democratic dispensation.

Not everyone can be an officer of the law. We really need to entrust the justice delivery system in the hands of some individuals. Those are the lawyers and the judges. So if we now doubt the very people we so trust, I begin to ponder where we are going as a society. Maybe back to the days of King John of England and his Barons, everyone for himself, God for us all. The role of the lawyer in a democratic dispensation cannot be underestimated or taken for granted. In their practice, lawyers are expected to do three main things. What are these three principal obligations of a lawyer?

First, lawyers must keep their clients' confidences. Second, they must zealously advocate for their clients' interests. And third, they must conduct themselves in a professional manner and as officers of the courts in which they are admitted to practice. This third obligation is so fundamental that it acts as a check against bad temptations that might be brought on by the first two obligations. Lawyers risk censure, suspension, or even being disbarred if they lie in court, commit perjury, hide/manufacture or cook evidence, etc.

Therefore, lawyers merely do what society has established or expect them to do in all cases. They will not do what the law does not require of them. So in our individual senses, we may see lawyers to be lying but they are actually doing or saying what is lawful. Moreover, what will be the truth may not necessarily be lawful and the otherwise holds.