?Describe the adversarial system of justice that is followed by U.S. and English courts.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The adversarial system of justice is a legal system in which the parties to a lawsuit are opponents, or adversaries, and present their cases in the light most favorable to themselves.The impartial decision maker (the judge or jury) determines who wins based on an application of the law to the evidence presented. Parties to a lawsuit come before the court as contestants, in an attempt to "win" the "battle." The parties do not come together in the courtroom with the idea of working out a compromise solution to their problems or of looking at the dispute from each other's point of view. Rather, they take sides, present their best case to the judge or jury (if it is a jury trial), and hope that this impartial decision maker rules in their favor.In an adversarial system, the goal of the attorneys (and paralegals) is not so much to determine the truth as to win the case. An attorney's job is not to seek out or reveal the truth to judges (although ethical rules prohibit attorneys from presenting evidence that they know to be untrue). Rather, the role of the attorney is to discover and present the strongest legal argument on behalf of a client, regardless of the attorney's personal feelings about the client or the client's case. Because of the adversarial nature of our system, paralegals may be asked to work on cases that they do not believe in or for clients they do not like.