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Access To Justice: Stories From A Pro Bono Lawyer | Through Their Eyes - YouTube
Channel: O plus by OGS
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there exists in our society
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a substantial group of people who are
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actually struggling
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to just live we don't see them
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but it doesn't mean that they don't
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[Music]
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exist
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the people that we help at lspbs they
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are usually poor
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they are vulnerable they may be isolated
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marginalized
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and because of their circumstances they
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just don't have that same chance
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of fighting and representing themselves
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in the ecosystem
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you are that's already like their
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lifeline
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i was representing a woman who was
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pending her trial she actually had some
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family members who were willing to bail
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her out
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meaning she could still be outside of
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prison while waiting for her trial
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and she told me that she didn't want to
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explore that option because for the
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first time in her life
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she didn't have to worry about rent
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about putting food on the table for the
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rest of her family
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she felt at peace can you imagine a life
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where
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you would rather be reminded in prison
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than to be
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outside but there are people living
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amongst
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us that would rather die than
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have a chance at living because they
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don't have
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better alternatives
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i once acted for a man who was accused
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of
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drug trafficking he was facing the death
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penalty
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but what we could do was to run the
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defense
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that only a small part of the heroine
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found in his house was meant to be
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trafficked
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small enough to not attract the death
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penalty but he just wanted to claim
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he didn't know that the substances found
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in his house were drugs
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even though he had already admitted to
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the police that he knew it was drugs
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even though we repeatedly told him what
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the likely outcome of that decision was
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going to be that it would result in him
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hanging
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he persisted my team and i we told him
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that we
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couldn't run that defense knowing what
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the truth was
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and he told me that
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he knew that it was a suicidal defense
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and he said
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i would rather hang than die in prison
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because the alternative would mean that
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he would be in prison
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for a really long time and he was
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already
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in his 50s so that was
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our last conversation with him and then
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we parted ways
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do i don't agree and i don't agree with
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his decision
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it just goes against you know everything
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you know
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as a lawyer but you know listening to
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his
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life story just felt like he never
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really had a chance
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for a better life as well he never
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had much education dropped out in
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primary school
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he started using drugs from a very very
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young
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age he told me he never had friends he
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never had a girlfriend
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he grew up in a single flat with 11
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other siblings
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and he was bullied all his life
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because he was physically deformed and
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drugs to him was a way of speaking
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it is only when you are in the same room
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with them
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listening to them and really you know
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feeling the real pain that they are in
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that was when i realized that oh wow
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what separates us actually is not just
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that glass in between us but whatever
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life has thrown our way
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what i often realize about my clients
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is that their legal problem doesn't
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exist in a vacuum
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some of them still because they are poor
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and
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they just cannot find good employment
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some of them are repeated drug offenders
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because they never managed to get help
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for their addictions
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or they just never managed to solve that
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problem which keeps leading them
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to relapse what we try to do
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is to not just resolve our clients
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legal issues but to also point them in
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the right direction
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connect them with psychiatrists with
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counselors
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so that they can get that root cause
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treated as well
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a lot of the people that i help often
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have nobody else
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to turn to and because they have just
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been trust into
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very very difficult situations sometimes
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i think
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them knowing that someone is on their
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team speaking for them
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listening to their problems and
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understanding what they're going through
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is already a very big help
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