Legal Services
There are many legal issues that we as a society face everyday. We face these issues as government employees, state employees, civilian workers, police officers, teachers, students, and practically every other job in the nation. Running into a legal dilemma is inevitable whether you are at the other end of it or not, you will learn about one at least once a day. This can be on the news, television, newspaper, magazine, by word of mouth, phone conversation. The only way you can probably avoid a legal problem is if you are a practicing Amish person in Lancaster, Pennsylvania not having any contact with the outside world.
One place where legal matters rise is in education. Schools are often at the root end of a scandal or protest for one legal matter or another. They find themselves enlisting in legal services to defend their institution and their integrity commonly nowadays. One of the repeating occurrences in schools is that of student abuse. Student abuse is a legal issue that has existed as long as schools have been in existence. The thing is, it can come from different places. The main place it comes is from teachers. Every year there are countless scandals of student abuse in schools by teachers. These usually deal with a teacher using unlawful force by striking a student. Teachers often forget that the student in front of them is not their own child and sometimes lose their thought process for a moment and end up striking a student. Other times, the teacher may have a violent history and just snap one day and strike a child after building up anger inside. These educators end up hiring the legal services of an attorney on top of the school having their lawyers as well. This is because the charges being filed against them can result in a law suit for the institution. But this is not the only way a teacher can abuse a student, there is also the case of depravation of objects or discrimination. Some teachers will treat a student differently that they are not particularly fond of. This can be because of something the student does that bothers them, or something they don’t do right, or just for the fact that the teacher doesn’t like them. In these cases the teacher will disrespect the student in front of others, grade their papers using different judgment than with that of the other students, or simply disallow that student privileges available to other students. They can also deprive them of certain breaks, or sometimes of lunch (cruelty), and even bathroom breaks. This may only be seen as a teacher “ picking” on a student, but it in fact is a form of abuse. Now we come to the most heard of type of abuse in schools (which also happens to be the main one in churches as well) and that is sexual abuse. A year does not go by without a story making the news in regards to a sexual relationship between a student and teacher. It is something that has become so common its sickening to most Americans. The surprising part is that most people in society would expect the abuse to come from male teachers, and the numbers are higher in offenses by female teachers on male students. The stories are out there for everyone to read and formulate an opinion or stance on, so we won’t focus on this legal problem and rather move along. Another issue that schools run into almost all the time is discrimination, which comes in many forms as well. There have been legal cases brought against schools for discriminating students because of their sex to participate in certain sports that are not available for their gender. Some schools are even found guilty of racial discrimination by teachers of students, and sometimes even by the administration as a whole. One of the most recent forms of discrimination to hit the news is against gays and lesbians. The gay and lesbian students in schools already receive torture and ridicule from the student body, but sometimes the school singles them out even more and creates animosity towards them by denying them certain rights. In the media recently, an openly lesbian student was denied her right to bring a female guest and wear a tuxedo to a prom. When she retaliated and protested against the school, the administration took the step of canceling the prom altogether. This created tons of hatred for the girl (more than she was experiencing already) from the students and their parents. The school now has a ton of legal matters to face for the harm it has caused this student. We can be sure she will be seeking legal services of a prominent attorney to present her case against the school. These are just some examples of where legal issues make their way into schools and educational institutions.
Another place where legal problems create a ton of noise” is in advertisement. In the United States alone, billions of dollars are spent by multiple corporations to market products and services. The marketing and planning that goes into all types of advertisement is tremendous. We can find ads for almost anything, anywhere, at any given time. In fact if you wake up in the middle of the night with a slight case of insomnia and you turn your television to a cable channel, most likely you will find a constant slide show of infomercials promoting and selling a product. Commercials are running at a higher rate than ever in between program segments, with the highest revenue creating ones being the Super Bowl commercials. Now with all these advertisements flying past television screens, blasting on radio shows, displayed up on billboards, in magazines and newspapers, there has to be some conflict. One of the greatest legal dilemmas marketing departments of companies and marketing companies run into is being sued for false advertisement. These agencies and companies most likely have the legal services of a corporate attorney available to them constantly. False advertisement is when they make a promise in their product or service that is not truly available and their argument is not verified in the fine print or “speed talk” at the bottom or end of their ad. These cases hit the legal court system on a normal basis and if they make it this far, usually the consumer is right. False advertisement is simply a marketing tactic to convince the consumer of buying your product or service, or coming into your business with a false promise of something, but at least generating their attention or purchase. This is not the only part of services that ends up in the marketing representative seeking legal services, there is also copyright infringement. Sometimes it becomes a tough task for one company to match the advertisement of its competitor so they try to copy the method , catch phrase, or even the technology used to advertise that product or service without actually “copying it”. They basically try to create something as similar to their competitors ad without breaking any laws. However, sometimes they don’t try hard enough and end up in court. Perhaps they overlooked a minor detail or copyright law, and this causes another legal issue. There are many laws that protect products in advertising as well as in patents and copyrights, that’s why it’s important to not overlook these things to avoid legal mistakes.
Other places where legal problems can be encountered are employment, owning a business, and the most obvious, the courtrooms of America. People encounter issues at their job all the time, such as unfair treatment or being overworked and underpaid. There are many labor laws that protect employees and their treatment on the job. These laws protect them from being paid below wages, being discriminated for race, age, sex, religion, etc.. , being given the amount of breaks they are entitled to, and many other things. Many employees end up suing their employers (which rapidly become ex-employers) for many of these issues when the companies do not abide by the legal system. Depending on the charge, the victims use the legal services of the corresponding attorneys, such as defense attorneys or criminal defense attorneys. These lawsuits can hurt not only the value of a company, but also its reputation. This is why its important for companies to follow all laws and guidelines when it comes to the treatment of its employees. On the other end of this are company owners. They run into legal issues with dealing with employees which we discussed, but also with job safety, and meeting state and federal guidelines. There are many laws that state how a company must conduct its business in accordance to the service it offers or product it sells. Some of these guidelines can pertain to job safety and the proper labeling of dangerous objects, walkways, wet floors, etc… Anytime one of these laws or guidelines isn’t followed, a legal matter arises and usually strong fines and stipulations follow. Finally the biggest place of all is the courtrooms of America, and that is accordingly, self explanatory.
We’ve taken a look at some (but not all) the places in America where one may require legal services of an attorney due to the disobedience of laws and guidelines in different places. Everyday we are made more aware of places that we knew of before, and perhaps learn of a new one. Regardless the number of legal instances is rising in America due to the new laws that are created and passed everyday and people that disregard them knowingly or without the proper knowledge.