14. Answer the questions.

1. What is almost unique about the English legal system?

2. What kind of problems does a solicitor deal with?

3. How do you qualify as a solicitor?

4. What are barristers experts in?

5. When must you have a barrister?

6. What reasons are there for saying a barrister is rather remote?

7. How do you qualify as a barrister?

15. Read the following text and answer the questions.

One of the most important figures in the British legal system is the solicitor. It is his job to advise you on legal matters of all kinds. If you get into trouble with the police, you will probably ask a solicitor to help prepare your defence and, if the offence is to be heard in a Magistrates' Court, you can ask a solicitor to appear for you and argue your case. If the case goes to a higher Court, the solicitor still advises you, but you must get a barrister to appear for you.

On this tape a young solicitor discussed his experience: the reasons for theft, crimes of violence and how he feels when he knows the man he is defending is guilty. He gives his reason for defending someone in these circumstances.

1. What are the two main jobs of a solicitor?

2. What does the young solicitor talk about on the tape?

16. Match each word or expression on the left with the correct definition.

    a) witness	1. everything witnesses say in court: facts, etc.
    b) cross-examine	2. where witnesses stand in court
    c) witness-box	3. someone who sees a crime or an accident
    d) evidence	4. ask all witnesses involved in a case questions
    e) defence	5. to say something happened though the fact hasn't been proved yet
    f) allege	6. all the evidence, facts, things, etc. that a solicitor can use to prove a man is not guilty.

17. Read, translate and discuss the text. Attorneys in the usa

Growth of the Profession. Today the number of lawyers in the United States exceeds 675,000. This translates to one lawyer for every 364 people. Twenty-five years ago there was one lawyer for every 700 people. The rate at which the legal profession is growing will probably continue to outpace rate of population growth through the end of the century.

Why is a career in law so popular? Market forces account for some of the allure. We know that in 1984 the average salary of experienced lawyers was 88,000 dollars. If we could include in this average the salaries of all lawyers, whatever their experience, the figure would probably be much lower, certainly well below the 108,000 dollars average salary of physicians. But lawyers' salaries are still substantially greater than those of many other professionals. Salaries for newly minted lawyers heading for elite New York law firms exceeded 71,000 dollars in 1987; some firms offered additional bonuses for clerkship experience in the federal courts and state supreme courts. The glamour of legal practice strengthens the attraction of its financial rewards.

There are other reasons for the popularity of the legal profession and the great demand for legal services. Materialism and individualism in American culture encourage dispute.