last tuesday, i had to go to the provincial court for a plea for sentencing hearing. my client had been charged with assaulting his wife under the canadian criminal code. it ended well - or at least we got the verdict that was best under the circumstances. my client obtained a conditional discharge, which means that he's sorta acquitted (w/o a criminal record) but he will be on probation for 2 years.

initially, i had a lot of misgivings about taking on this case because im really against domestic violence, and i didn't really want to represent someone who was guilty of spousal abuse. however, i still went ahead to do it coz i wanted to experience trial work in the vancouver courts, and my client really needed help coz he cldnt speak english and didnt have the financial means to afford legal advice/representation. to make matters worse, it didnt really help that my client lied to me twice (another long story), and it made me quite mad about it actually. how was i gonna do my job if i can't even be sure what he has been telling me, was the truth? but i realized why he did that eventually, and as the case progressed, the whole picture became clearer to me and i saw his side of the story. in fact, i now deeply empathize with him and his predicament. i really learnt a lot from this experience, especially concerning the ethical dilemmas (i shant go into detail. haha) that a lawyer will often find himself/herself facing. i am also ashamed that i held on to my prejudices, when i handled the matter (until the last part). nevertheless, im just glad that i did what i could for him, to the best of my ability and it ended well! being able to contribute my small bit to the realization of compassion in justice has given me a great sense of satisfaction:)