Truth Seeking ought to take precedence over attorney client privilege

Our laws guarantee us certain privileges that no courtroom can take away. One of those essential privileges is the attorney-client privilege. The privilege to engage in confidential conversations with your lawyer, those conversations which are protected to ensure that the truth is told from the client. Attorneys cannot offer their clients the best defense possible if their clients feared that anything they told their lawyer could become public. Attorney-client privilege exists to promote societal values that come before the courtrooms pursuit of truth. That is why I strongly negate this resolution. Resolved : In the United States Criminal Justice System, truth-seeking ought to take precedence over attorney-client privilege. I offer the following definitions from Oxford English Dictionary. Attorney : A qualified lawyer, especially one who represents clients in court proceedings. Client : Someone using professional services. Right : An entitlement granted under law. Ought : Used to express obligation or duty. In today"s debate I will be valuing Societal Good. "The good of society after something happens" . The freedoms and duties in the bill of rights assure the societal good. In the United States where we have the Bill of Rights, there is a basic statement of freedoms subject to permitted abridgment of such freedoms. However these freedoms are restricted to ensure safety. We need the freedom to have attorney client privilege to ensure our society"s security and safety. My value criterion today is that on Utilitarianism. "The most good for the most amount of people." Under utilitarian theory, privacy is an interest to be weighed against other societal interests, such as the furtherance of justice. The client will not feel free to disclose critical private information, if confidentiality is not assured. With truly protected communication, a greater trust will develop between the attorney and their client, and the client will be more likely to rely on their attorneys advice. This is especially crucial where a client reveals a future plan with illegal implications, such that the attorney acts as society"s safety net in discouraging the harmful plan. This presumably benefit"s the justice system more then it hinders it. Now onto my contentions .. Contention 1 : A society should restrict their ability to gain the truth in some cases in order to benefit the overall goals of the legal system. Paul Rosenzweig, Senior Legal Research Fellow, The Heritage Foundation, Texas Review of Law And Politics, Fall 2002, p. 172. The law may, at times, self consciously limit its search for truth, but it does so not because truth is inherently unrelated to the search for justice. Rather, as in the case of privileges, society has made the utilitarian judgment that certain restrictions on our ability to discern the truth in individual cases are of long-term benefit to the overall truth-seeking goals of the legal system. This kind of instrumental analysis, about which reasonable minds may differ, is a far cry from the deconstructionist view that all truth is relative. Contention 2 : Attorney client privilege contributes to the fact finding process. Deborah Stavile Bartel, Visiting Associate Professor of Law, Touro Law School, Brooklyn Law Review Winter 1995, p. 1365. I justify the attorney client privilege by arguing that it contributes to the fact finding process of out adversarial system. The privilege encourages a client to reveal more relevant facts to his or her lawyers so that the lawyer is better able to develop a fuller factual record on behalf of the client. No person ever confesses guilt outright, so we rationalize this confidentiality because it is deemed essential to the lawyer"s performance of his or her role as advocate. Unless the client if free to disclose everything, good as well as bad, the lawyer cannot be properly prepared to defend or promote the client"s case. If the lawyer is able to prepare properly he or she will make better decisions about whether to maintain a case, assert a particular defense, or settle the case, The privilege, therefore, helps ease courts" burden in managing cases. The attorney client privilege helps the Criminal Justice System more then it hinders it, by letting clients feel safe in confiding in their attorney, whether it be good or bad, that way the attorney is better able to defend the client. For these reasons and more, I strongly urge a negative vote. I await your respone.(: