OLAN DAVE L.

LACHICA
LEGAL COUNSELING

REFLECTION ABOUT LAWYERING AS PORTRAYED BY

THE MOVIE “MY COUSIN VINNY”

REFLECTION PAPER

Law, justice and lawyer are commonly interconnected.

Law is the system of rules regulating the actions of inhabitants
of a country, while lawyers are one who practices and studies
law. They are the one who defend the rights of every citizen
by following the legal process imposed in one’s state.

Law is commonly reflected with the lawyers themselves.

They are the reflection of justice and hope for an accused is
presumed innocent until proven.

Mastery of the law and procedures are two of the keys

for success in order to properly defend an accused and for
justice to be served and rights be restored. However, mastery
and procedures does not mean that favorable judgement be
given in a snap of a finger. Application is one of the essential
elements to defend one from being incarcerated and be
deprived of a right that is legally his. School teaches law, to
whom it applies, when and how should it be applied and the
proper remedy and procedure to use for every case and rights
that have been violated. The school does not teach as
diligence, diligence in the study of law. Studying law also
requires time and commitment. It is a jealous mistress that
demands to much time. Without properly balancing the time
for it, plenty of things might be left forgotten and may be the
cause of your failure. It is not easy to study law and pass
every subject one will be required to enroll. One failure can
mean additional year. Even if one is equipped with the
diligence required, it is not an assurance that a passing grade
will be given. It is a tough environment that only the toughest
of the tough survives. Graduation from the said environment
is only the start as the true fight begins with the preparations
to be undertaken during the review for the most awaited bar
examinations.

The movie “My Cousin Vinny” shows how application and

diligence a vital part of successful litigation. Vinny is a lawyer
who has less experience or if not, no experience in defending
anyone. His cousin is the first person whom he will be
defending in a case in which he is innocent. In the movie,
Vinny portrays a person who have stayed for a very long time
in the law school and had taken the bar examinations a
number of times. But regardless how long he had studied or
how long he had taken the bar examinations, he never
surrendered. In the movie, Vinny portrays an average lawyer
who does not know if he is into lawyering or not. Being his
first litigation, he is not familiar with the procedures of the
place and despite the help that was offered to him, he refused
it as he wants to win it without any help. Throughout the
litigation, the help he rejected was the help that he dearly
needs. A person may survive by his own but a hand from
others will greatly help. Average or not, it is up to us to
compel ourselves to continue and be diligent in every fight
that we are going to undertake. It is our choice which road to
pass through and no one can be at fault for the judgement
and choice that we will make.