my first taste of pro-bono lawyering
today was the very first time I got to sit in on a client interview.
client one was a middle aged lady who wanted advice about a possible separation or divorce. I guess it never really occurred to me just how confidential the nature of the information our clients come to us with; the things she shared were very personal. i can only imagine how hard it must've been hard for her to tell those things to a stranger. my heart went out to her and her children whom we learnt are around my age. divorce is a difficult thing, when you've interwoven your life so much with another person's. it reminds me of that line from Over My Head - "let's rearrange, i wish you were a stranger i could disengage" but it was just so strange to contemplate ending a 20 year marriage just with some papers. 20 years of history dissolved like that, and you effectively become strangers.
it's very sad. i certainly don't believe in divorce but i can see how it would be difficult to hang on in her situation. and then there are all the technicalities of divorce - separation, division of marital assets, etc... it's all very... cold and methodical.
client number 2 had not one, but two driving while disqualified charges. that basically means that he had a suspended/disqualified license and he was still driving around. the stupid thing was that the charges were within a week of each other, and it was the same police officer that pulled him over both times. some people just can't catch a break =_= lol. anyway, it turns out client number 2 has a huge list of prior convictions, including things like arson, assault, theft of motor vehicles, etcs. (he's quite a young guy btw) and you know.. he looked harmless. i felt so sorry for him when he asked 'will i be sent to jail with the more serious criminals?' because for his repeat offence, there's a minimum jail term of a month, with up to 2 years' possibility. when we told him that, his face just sank and it was like we had taken the hope away from him.
:(
anyway.. yeah. that's my first taste of pro-bono lawyering, and i really really enjoy it, even though it makes me very sad to see people in such sorry situations. it's hard not to even feel slightly emotionally invested in someone's situation when they come to you for help.
client one was a middle aged lady who wanted advice about a possible separation or divorce. I guess it never really occurred to me just how confidential the nature of the information our clients come to us with; the things she shared were very personal. i can only imagine how hard it must've been hard for her to tell those things to a stranger. my heart went out to her and her children whom we learnt are around my age. divorce is a difficult thing, when you've interwoven your life so much with another person's. it reminds me of that line from Over My Head - "let's rearrange, i wish you were a stranger i could disengage" but it was just so strange to contemplate ending a 20 year marriage just with some papers. 20 years of history dissolved like that, and you effectively become strangers.
it's very sad. i certainly don't believe in divorce but i can see how it would be difficult to hang on in her situation. and then there are all the technicalities of divorce - separation, division of marital assets, etc... it's all very... cold and methodical.
client number 2 had not one, but two driving while disqualified charges. that basically means that he had a suspended/disqualified license and he was still driving around. the stupid thing was that the charges were within a week of each other, and it was the same police officer that pulled him over both times. some people just can't catch a break =_= lol. anyway, it turns out client number 2 has a huge list of prior convictions, including things like arson, assault, theft of motor vehicles, etcs. (he's quite a young guy btw) and you know.. he looked harmless. i felt so sorry for him when he asked 'will i be sent to jail with the more serious criminals?' because for his repeat offence, there's a minimum jail term of a month, with up to 2 years' possibility. when we told him that, his face just sank and it was like we had taken the hope away from him.
:(
anyway.. yeah. that's my first taste of pro-bono lawyering, and i really really enjoy it, even though it makes me very sad to see people in such sorry situations. it's hard not to even feel slightly emotionally invested in someone's situation when they come to you for help.
posted by xinbean at
6:49 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home