Dealing with the Unimaginable

Lawyers are tasked with dealing with some of the most horrible crimes that people commit. Crimes that most of us only experience by watching violent and dark movies and T.V shows. Sure, the people working on the case do not actually have these crimes perpetrated against them, but they do have to learn every single intricacy and detail of the facts surrounding the case, and the individual who perpetrated it. Often times, in the case of a defense attorney, like my supervisor, Roger, the court appoints them an individual to defend and unless they have a very good reason, they are stuck with it. So far, I have only had to deal with minor issues, like working to prevent parents from seeing their children, and hearing the accounts of people who have had their whole lives flipped on top of them because of drugs and other addictions. Listening Roger and other lawyers tell stories about pedophiles, rapists, and murderers can drive a person to wonder how an individual copes with the stress and exposure of this kind of occupation. Roger told me the story of him having to call the mother of a child who was molested a liar in court. He did not want to do that, because he and everyone in the courtroom knew that she was not lying, but it was his job. That kind of stress is not good for the human mind, and it must be dealt with, and I have done my best to observe how him and the other attorneys deal with it. I have noticed that many of them laugh. Most try to turn a story that contains details that should be shocking, and that everyone knows are horrible, into a tale that makes them keel over in laughter. Often times it is hard not to laugh, and it just makes you grateful that you are not in the situation that they just described. As unfortunate as it is, I have noticed that most of the attorneys I have come into contact with are as cynical as a person can get, that or they are just grateful they are not on the other side.