Cariaga, Aprilyn Marie Fayda C.

LLB-4
LEGAL COUNSELING AS A SUBJECT
Nowadays, we live in a government of law and not of men. In the light of the
modernized and technical ways of life, laws are enacted, implemented and enforced.
The presence of the laws in the society guarantees the protection and balance of rights
of every individual. This leads to the seeking and giving legal advices to those who are
either aggrieved or confused or even potential litigants. An individual who is confronted
with a legal problem is usually confused and needs to be enlightened so he would seek
an advice from a person who is skilled in law to explain to him and give possible
remedies and steps to solve the legal problem. In practice, legal counseling is a series
of consultations, discussions and meetings to help the client to gain knowledge about
the legal problem he is undergoing through and to help him understand its surrounding
circumstances.
Legal counseling aims to put clients at ease by providing a non-threatening
environment while facilitating the rendition of legal services to them. This is an activity
which helps one to have a good understanding and grasps of the issues being
presented. Further, it helps the client to make a sound decision by providing the
possible consequences of the choice he will make and mentioning to him both its
advantages and disadvantages.
A good legal counseling shall involve the harmonizing of the given factual
situation with a factual situation being researched from existing reported cases. One
must study the applicable law and jurisprudence which matches the facts of the legal
problem of the client. Thereafter, check whether this will meet the expectations of the
client and such is acceptable. In the course of the practice of legal counseling, the legal
counselor must explain the meaning of the legal technical terms to the client in their
vernacular form and define them as simple as possible. Moreover, a good legal
counseling must present all the angles of the case to the client as well as the possible
alternatives or choices for a particular course of action. This would help the client to
make intelligent choices.
As a law student, legal counseling skills can be developed and improved. There
are practical ways of improving these skills. One can improve these skills by constantly
reading and reviewing recent and up-to-date laws and jurisprudence so that if someone
needs an aid to be enlightened on the gray matters of the instant case, I can easily
grasps and relate to the factual situations. One should also boost self-confidence in
communicating with the clients by establishing ties and rapport with them. If the client
knows that you are confident, he can easily share his insights with you and you can
easily get the ideas and issues of his legal problem. At this instance, the client and the
counselor go hand in hand together in solving a legal problem.
By enrolling in the subject of Legal Counseling, I expect that I will develop my
communication skills with regard in handling clients with legal problems. Moreover, I
wanted to build up my ability to relate the theoretical and practical aspects of the study
of law to factual situations. I even intend to expand my knowledge the proper ways of
entertaining and attending to the needs of the clients. Decisively, I want to widen my
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knowledge in harmonizing the grasp of ideas gathered and connect them with the
factual circumstances. I also intend to develop my reasoning skills and formulating
choices with legal bases that the client may avail or opt to do. Further, I also wanted to
gain more practicable ways on how to achieve a clear and precise compromise and
arbitration agreement suggestions to the client.