美語情景對話 第165期:律師 Lawyers

Todd: So, Alexandra, you're going to be a lawyer.

託德：那麼，亞歷山德拉，你要成爲律師了。

Alex: Yes, I am.

亞歷山德拉：是的。

Todd: Now laywers, unfortunately, often have a bad reputation. Why don't you talk about how lawyers are good for society: Why we need lawyers?

託德：現在很不幸地，律師通常都名聲不好。你爲什麼不談談律師對社會的好處：爲什麼我們需要律師呢？

Alex: Well, first we need lawyers because most of the time a lawyer will try to settle disputes between parties before it gets to a courtroom. Usually you have one side that has a problem and the other side is also aurgueing another point. So usually a lawyer will try to bring the two sides into their offices and to mediate a dispute before it gets to a courtroom. Another way a lawyer can help a society is usually lawyers can be very expensive, but there are programs out there that help people with less money, not necessarily to get free advice, but they can do it on a sliding scale, or a lawyer can do pro bono work which is free, and can help someone just, sometimes all they need is a letter written to resolve a problem or they just need somebody to go with them to court to explain what is going on, or just explain a lease or some other document for them that doesn't take much time and makes the client feel a lot better and a lot of times lawyers will take up the cause of children. If there is a custody dispute or some sort of bad thing that's happening to a child that needs a visit to a courtroom, the lawyer is there to be the lawyer for the child and no one else can influence the decisions that can be made for the child. It's almost like a protection and many other communitites or other sections of society that don't have a voice can get a voice through a lawyer.

亞歷山德拉：嗯，首先我們需要律師的理由是，律師大部分時間都在處理各方之間的爭議，以避免他們鬧上法庭。通常一方指出了問題，而另一方則持有另一種觀點。所以基本上，律師會試圖把雙方帶到辦公室，調解這個爭議，從而避免鬧上法庭。律師可以幫助社會的另一點是，通常來說請律師都很昂貴，可是現在有一種程序，可以幫助窮人，未必是得到免費建議，而是根據浮動比例收費，又或者律師可以做無償的工作，維護公平，有時候人們只需要一封解決問題的信件，或是他們需要有人陪他們去法庭解釋事情的來龍去脈，或是解釋租賃文件或是其他文件，這樣不會佔用太多時間，會使客戶感覺更舒服，而且律師會花費大量時間在兒童事業上。如果有監護權糾紛，或是其他不好的事情發生在兒童身上，這時就需要上法庭解決，律師會代表兒童，而其他任何人都不能影響兒童的決定。這就像一種保護，許多其他的社會組織和社會部門都不能像律師這樣發聲。

Todd: OK, great and what kind of lawyer are you going to be?

託德：好的，很好，你想成爲哪種律師？

Alex: An aviation lawyer.

亞歷山德拉：航空業律師。