For a lot of people, the idea of criminal law or criminal defense lawyers can be a baffling one. We have this idea rooted in our minds that the law exists to protect us from criminals, so the notion of a branch of law exclusively for their defense can be baffling.

However that is a rather limited way of looking at the law system, and not only is criminal law an important part of our system, it’s also completely necessary. Criminal law is essential to protect our rights, and today we’ll be taking a closer look at how this works in practice.

There’d be no trials without criminal defense lawyers

For trials to take place there has to be a prosecutor and an attorney. That much is something all of us understand when it comes to the legal system, but it’s important to take a deeper look at the nuances of this system.

“Everybody is innocent until proven guilty” is the most important maxim in the legal system, and that simple notion is why criminal defense lawyers are so important. When a “criminal” trial starts the prosecutors represent the affected parties, and the attorney defends the individual accused of committing the crime. But as we just said, this individual has only been accused, they haven’t been proven guilty and there needs to be a lawyer defending them for the process to continue.

Criminal defense lawyers ensure that at every time in the process their client is treated as someone who could be innocent, and this ensures the entire trial is fair and just for both parties. On top of that, since there are countless cases where their client is innocent, a criminal defense lawyer ultimately serves the same defensive role as any other attorney.

It doesn’t take much to be branded a criminal

While it can be a scary thought the truth is that it doesn’t take much to get branded as a criminal. Let’s say you are driving and due to a malfunction you hurt someone and are accused of vehicular assault. Maybe you happened to be in the wrong place and are accused of a recent theft. The possibilities are never-ending, and while getting accused of a crime won’t end your life, it does mean you’ll need the best criminal defense lawyer possible. A team like the one at socalcriminallaw.com has experience on both sides of the court and can defend your innocence.

At the end of the day these lawyers are as important as any other in the legal system, and “criminal” just happens to be the branch they specialized in. But make no mistake, there wouldn’t be a fair system if we didn’t have these professionals on our side.