List of Headings
- i Different areas of professional expertise
- ii Reasons why it is unfair to criticise lawyers
- iii The disadvantages of the legal system
- iv The law applies throughout our lives
- v The law has affected historical events
- vi The public's regard for lawyers
- vii The public's increasing ability to influence the law
- viii The growth in laws
Passage
Drag a heading to each paragraph.
1. The law influences all of us virtually all the time. It governs almost all aspects of our behaviour and affects us from the embryo onwards.
2. In earlier times, most people were illiterate. Today, by contrast, a vast number of people can read, and it is becoming easier for people to take an interest in law, and for the general population to help actually shape the law in many countries.
3. Those people with knowledge of computers, the internet, and communications technology are relied upon by the rest of us.
4. The number of laws has never been greater. In the UK alone, about 35 new Acts of Parliament are produced every year, thereby delivering thousands of new rules.
5. Lawyers are not universally admired. Anti-lawyer jokes have a long history going back to the ancient Greeks.
6. People make comments that characterise lawyers as professionals whose concerns put personal reward above truth, or who gain financially from misfortune. There are undoubtedly lawyers that would fit that bill, just as there are some scientists, journalists and others in that category. But, in general, it is no more just to say that lawyers are bad because they make a living from people's problems than it is to make the same accusation in respect of nurses or IT consultants.