Personal Code of Ethics - Essay Example

Personal of Ethics Every profession involves a specialized form of knowledge and commitment to do social good. The definition of profession essentially includes in it the ethical standards. Being in a particular profession means that, the person should adhere to certain set of rules which are exclusive for those in the same profession. It is not a general set of rules. Many a times it may involve a higher standard of behavior, but along with this they may also involve great privileges like the right to work in a different manner because of the membership in the profession. The formal ethical values or standards for the judges and lawyers were propagated by the American Bar Association in the form of Model Code of Professional Responsibility. Model Rules have been modified according to the demands since then. Now the Model Rules deal with areas like the lawyer- client relationship, the lawyer as an advocate, the lawyer as counselor, public services, transaction with others, and upholding the integrity of the profession. The ethical issues which the criminal law may involve are behavior in the courtroom, conflicts of interest, perjury, investigation efforts, use of media, discovery and sharing of the evidence, use of immunity, plea bargaining and relationship with attorneys of the opposite party. Although all the law schools, today, have the requirement of professional responsibility courses, morality and ethics are not taken to be seriously. There is a special relationship between the lawyer and the client. Many lawyers think that they have professional duty to show loyalty to their clients. This loyalty makes them departed from their personal and individual decision making process. The lawyers are regarded as both the legal and moral agents of their client rather than only the legal agents. The responsibility of the lawyer to avoid wrong doings puts a check to their own involvements in their clients. It has been suggested by Cohen there are certain principles which must be followed by the lawyers in order to be considered moral. They are: One should treat others as the ends and not the means to win cases. The lawyers should treat their clients and even other professional persons in the similar manner. One should not try to deliberately deceive the court by acting in some tricky manner. A lawyer should be willing to sacrifice his fame, name, money, and time, for a morally good cause. Money for wrongful purposes and in wrongful amounts should be avoided to be given or taken. In the process of representing the client one should not harm others. There should be loyalty shown towards clients and his confidences should not be betrayed. As a lawyer one should bring up his own moral decisions to the best of his ability and act constantly upon them. The justification behind these principles seems to be the correlation of utilitarianism, ethical formalism, and other ethical frameworks. The practicing lawyers may find certain principles as criticizing and not being able to uphold them. It has been pointed out in the Model Code of Professional Responsibility that the lawyers should be temperate and dignified and should desist themselves from all kinds of illegal and conduct that is morally reprehensible. As for the code of ethics that are entertained by me as a prosecutor, they are very much similar to that of the professional code of ethics that have been prescribed for all those in my profession. What I emphasize on is that the ethics should be such that it does not become complicated in certain situations to be followed. Professional (2) ethics is about the obligations that a professional has to perform being in his profession. Being in a legal profession the lawyers have important decision making power over the lives of many people and thus the code of ethics shows the right path as to how this power should be used. The codes acknowledge these powers and make a commitment that the power will not be misrepresented, especially for any personal gain. The codes ideally provide for the guidance about the specific ethical principles, the guiding values of the profession and specific standards. Just the studying of the ethical codes does not guarantee the ethical behavior on the part of the lawyers. Rather these codes set forth a base for the values, ethical standards and ethical principles, to which the lawyers aim and by which they can be judged. The ethics that I have created are very much in similarity with the professional ethics that have been prescribed for all the lawyers in this profession. Still (3) these may be explained as: Duty to public- being an advocate, the objective should be to uphold the Constitution, help maintaining the rules of law and enforcement of the fundamental rights of the people along with the promotion of advancement of justice. Moreover there should be morality in the manner one works and honesty should be clearly visible. One should not render any services or give advices involving breach of the law or implying disrespect to the established judiciary. Duty towards the court-one should show due respect to the judicial office, should not exert or attempt to exert any personal influence on the court, be always punctual, be fair and frank with the court and conduct himself with candor, the lawyer should not knowingly misquote the contents of a document, the testimony of a witness, the language of a decision, to cite as authority a decision that has been overruled or a statute that has been repealed or amended. Duty towards clients- an advocate should give advice to his clients honestly, in good faith, and without taking advantage of the ignorance of the client. He should devote to the client's cause his knowledge and skill to the utmost of his ability. He is bound to accept and brief in the court in which he normally practices at a proper professional fee on the basis of first come, first saved. Justifiable and unjustifiable litigation- an advocate shall decline to conduct civil case or make a defense when convinced that it is intended merely to harass or to injure the opposite party or to work for wrong. Conflict of interests- an advocate should decline to accept a brief where the acceptance would be incompatible with his professional honor or independence or would be otherwise not in the best of the interests of the administration of justice. Defense or prosecution of those accused of crime- an advocate should not refuse the defense of a person accused of a crime merely because in his opinion the accused is guilty of the crime unless he has any conscious objection to accept such defense. There are many other ethics that I have incorporated in the code of ethics created by me like withdrawal from employment as counsel, dealing with client's property properly, duty towards the profession and properly dressing in robes before the courts. Being in the profession of a prosecutor also envisages certain ethical principles which include, use of discretion, matters relating to the conflicts of interests, there should not be plea bargaining, having a good and charismatic relationship with the media, the prosecutor should not impose his personal views on the eye witnesses, there should be the presence of zealous prosecution and it is the duty of the prosecutor to seek justice and there should not be any prosecutorial misconduct. The prosecutor should not introduce any criminal charges without any probable cause. This is what is known as the use of discretion. Regarding the matters relating to conflicts one should not put oneself in situation where there is a conflict of interest in respect to the official duties. The concept of plea bargaining envisages that the prosecutor should not make any false statements or representations knowingly concerning any fact or law in the course of plea discussions with the accused or the defense counsel. Again the prosecutor should not impose his decisions if he has hired an expert for opinion and respect his independence. Zealous prosecution involves the prosecutor's duty to seek justice and not only convict. Misconducts occur when the prosecutor forgets about his mission to protect due process and not get a conviction. The extent of misconduct may extend from the nonperformance of ethical rules to the degree of commission of criminal acts like hiding evidence. My professional code is different from the unwritten code in a very trivial manner. The ethics that the professional code upholds are a bit unworkable. They are thought to be burden on the professional and they are sometimes not at all practical. Yet they are the highest codes of ethics which have to be followed by all the professionals in this profession. My codes seem to be more practical and they can be applied easily by anyone in this profession. When it comes to the situations of dilemmas, my personal code of ethics solves my problem of taking up the case or not, there are various situations when there is a confusing situation whether to take up the brief or not, at this very time, it is my personal code of ethics that help me to solve the problem. Finally it can be confidently argued that my personal codes of ethics seem to match the ethical standards required for the career as a prosecutor. This is because it helps in the assessment of the case which is to be taken by a person as a prosecutor and clears all the dilemmas that are associated with the profession concerned. Basically speaking, (4) the professional code of ethics at the heart is the notions of promise and oath. One gives his word to the power that is higher (God, profession, society, fellow officers), by swearing or committing loyalty to the code of ethics, that they will be held accountable to standards or virtues that are normally beyond ordinary morality. References 1. Pollock, J. M. (2004). Ethics in crime and justice: Dilemmas and decisions (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth. 2. Paul Leighton, Donna Killingbeck, Criminal Justice Ethics ,Paul's Justice Page, July 4th, http://www.paulsjusticepage.com/cjethics/ethics_appendix.htm 3. Dr. S.K. Awasthi, 1999, Law and Conduct of Legal Profession, Lawyer's Duty, CTJ Publications, pg 25. 4. Ethical and Moral Issues in Intelligence, http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/427/427lect11.htm Read More