I need your help flist! Save me!
Hi everyone!
So I'm throwing this one completely out there.
A friend (silentpoetry1 ) and I are co-writing a story. And in it, one of our main characters is a lawyer. Now, neither of us is particularly savvy with American law or the process of the court and other legal things. (We've done some research and we keep turning up new and interesting things, but it doesn't mean we understand what we've found).
So, our question to you, my wonderful f-list, does anyone know anything about the legal system - specifically:
* what kind of lawyer our character is if he is a civil servant who defends or presents cases on behalf of others (does that make him a "public defender" or part of the DA's office? Or both? Or something else?)
* Emancipation of a Minor Laws (we know that these laws differ from state to state and that some state simply do not have them or do not allow such actions. but one of the characters in the story is a 16 year old boy trying to become emancipated from his parents so it is sort of necessary knowledge. Again, we've done some research into the matter - actually I've got something close to a dozen book marks on the subject that I've read and I lost count of the number of open Tabs I have with more to read. But again with the confusion)
We'll probably come up with more questions if we can find someone who can help us out - even with just an idea of where we should be starting!
So, help? Please? *begs pretty*
So I'm throwing this one completely out there.
A friend (silentpoetry1 ) and I are co-writing a story. And in it, one of our main characters is a lawyer. Now, neither of us is particularly savvy with American law or the process of the court and other legal things. (We've done some research and we keep turning up new and interesting things, but it doesn't mean we understand what we've found).
So, our question to you, my wonderful f-list, does anyone know anything about the legal system - specifically:
* what kind of lawyer our character is if he is a civil servant who defends or presents cases on behalf of others (does that make him a "public defender" or part of the DA's office? Or both? Or something else?)
* Emancipation of a Minor Laws (we know that these laws differ from state to state and that some state simply do not have them or do not allow such actions. but one of the characters in the story is a 16 year old boy trying to become emancipated from his parents so it is sort of necessary knowledge. Again, we've done some research into the matter - actually I've got something close to a dozen book marks on the subject that I've read and I lost count of the number of open Tabs I have with more to read. But again with the confusion)
We'll probably come up with more questions if we can find someone who can help us out - even with just an idea of where we should be starting!
So, help? Please? *begs pretty*