By Hannah Swart
Imagine standing in front of a judge, prosecutor, jury, and a whole courtroom full of people, trying to defend yourself against accusations of a crime you did not commit, without the help of a lawyer or anyone else. Although in modern times, we take for granted the fact that the
defendant and the prosecution in every trial have the right to a lawyer, in Victorian times, this was not the case. Up
until the mid-1800s, lawyers were rarely used.
Prosecutors had always been allowed lawyers, but few could afford
one. The defendant, however, was not allowed
to hire a lawyer in most cases. The
assumption behind this was that if the defendant was honest, it would be easy
enough to tell the truth and display why the evidence did not condemn him. It was not until 1836 that lawyers were
allowed to summarize the case for the defendant. Even then, most defendants could not afford a
defense lawyer. This is certainly a contrast to our modern-day standard court proceedings. Although lawyers are still expensive, we don't think about the fact that they were not always so common.
Source: http://vcp.e2bn.org/justice/page11444-lawyers.html
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