Gaining Legal Competency Through Paternity Fraud Cases: A Reflection - Essay Sample

Introduction

Law is one of the most interesting careers and constant engagement in hypothetical cases and frameworks play an instrumental role towards the attainment of legal competency. One of the most pivotal point of learning in the course of my engagement in legal procedures and framework occurred through the application of the tort of deceit in paternity fraud cases which has been an instrumental source of competency on how legal procedures are developed. Legal procedures especially in paternity fraud which is a relatively developing legal area continues to learn from the legal procedures in the tort of deceit. The tort of deceit is based on the existence of intentional deceit and its framework can be used to establish a legal framework for paternity fraud cases. This learning statement will seek to elaborate on the key lessons and areas of legal learning that has been instrumental in the overall acquisition of legal procedures and framework that can be applied in solving paternity fraud cases in the common wealth countries.

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From the activities of the last 18 weeks one of the important professional knowledge I have acquired is the importance and context of legal framework which is instrumental in the development of meaningful law practice. In paternity fraud, tort of deceit can be used as a legal framework based on the procedural steps and rules that have been established through precedent in common law involving fraudulent behavior. The legal framework of tort of deceit provides an important avenue through which judgements in paternity fraud cases can be made in a legal case. The evidence and the procedural process of tort of deceit can be directly adopted in paternity fraud cases due to the existence of intentional deceit in both cases. A good legal framework should be based on rules which prevents partiality and bias in the implementation of the law and promotes uniformity which is instrumental in meeting the growing demand for a uniform approach of legal infrastructure. The common wealth legal procedures and cases are significantly similar and they enrich other through legal precedents which are used to further understand legal procedures and promote impartial judgements in cases.

In the past 18 weeks, I have expanded my imagination and creativity. I have learned to think and analyse issues critically, which has been instrumental in my research project. Case in point, in finding the examples to reference regarding family law, I had to imagine the scenarios where paternity fraud would occur to establish the information on which to research. My improved creativity further surfaced in comparing different perspectives of paternity fraud, which both deepened my understanding of the issue and helped me find different contexts for family law as it relates to the topic. I have further learnt organisational skills. Organisational skills, in this context, refers to curating the paper, as well as finding effective ways of conducting research without distractions and using the most relevant publications. Collating pieces of evidence from different sources to support the research project demanded a great ability to consolidate them into a paper that fulfilled the study requirements.

I have also learned to be more compassionate. While family law quite a complex topic, understanding the reasons for one party to feel aggrieved is critical in analysing each relationship and finding means to resolve it. Although it is a prerequisite for law students and lawyers to remain impartial in legal matters, I cannot help but sympathize with the suffering party's situation. However, the different contexts of parenthood and the issues that may arise out of it are rather eye-opening. They have further aided my blossoming love for arguing cases in court, especially ones that have spurred such great interest in me as paternity law has. The course of this research, therefore, has sparked my curiosity in family vis-a-vis the issues that lead to parental disorder.

In working on this project, I have increased my awareness of family law. Previously, the knowledge I had was rather scanty compared to what I can boast of now. I have gathered knowledge of the theoretical justifications for family law. I can quote the major milestone as ideological because in completing this project, I encountered scholars who consider it uncouth for a father to terminate any current legal obligations for their non-biological child. Initially, I had presumed that discovering that the child has a different biological father that implied a deliberate intent to acquire financial aid from an individual whose role was quite different from the intended one.

Another significant milestone was overcoming the challenge of finding impartial information that was devoid of bias. As I indicated in the "Study Limitations" section of the project, the vast majority of materials I used for the study were secondary sources. Typically, each individual has their own cognitive and other types of biases that make their view of each topic unique and significantly biased. I struggled to find ways to ensure the information I used was from as many sources as possible, which, in my view, reduced the likelihood of the study being impartial. Finding a middle ground when comparing these sources was somewhat challenging. What made this issue even more complicated was the fact that the research is qualitative. Typically, quantitative analysis is based on figures, and the probability of them being nonfactual is far less than the case for qualitative research. Therefore, I consider a milestone that I was able to establish a semblance of impartiality consistently throughout the paper.

In my work life, knowing the biases that afflict academic studies has introduced me to the limitations of research, which will enable me to understand the context of every opinion, along with the shortcomings of each. In the legal setting, I can use this understanding to ascertain the challenges of other lawyers' arguments, which I can apply to strengthen my case. Furthermore, my improved capabilities of conducting academic research will enable me to understand legal cases, issues, and contexts better, which is crucial in building my cases. This awareness should also suffice in my life in general. Although people are sometimes passionate about the issues they communicate, their wishes and desires tend to influence their ideas. In this respect, their notions will rarely be without experiential influences. Therefore, I will use my newfound knowledge of the existence of bias to treat each opinion as possibly prejudiced. In so doing, I will be inclined to find factual information, rather than the biased versions of the same.

In the future, the knowledge and competency on legal framework especially in cases involving paternity fraud I will be able to understand the different principles that can be applied. The tort of deceit which is usually used in contract cases can be adopted in paternity fraud as a guide to be able to establish evidence as well as procedures that can be used to deliver justice in the developing area of practice which is not fully covered in the family law. The tort of deceit judgements can be used to make pre-emptive decisions on the evidence considerations. The tort of deceit framework is used in the determination of the potential compensation for the cases of fraud due to the high similarity between paternity fraud and fraud in the contract law.

In line with the point above, understanding legal issues better has enabled me to be more confident than I formerly was on matters of law and legal research. This shift stems from an understanding of the situations that victims of paternity fraud experience and the ramifications of the same, which often put them at a disadvantage. With such passion, I believe my motivation to pursue a law career has increased, a fact that shall trickle down to my daily life. In this respect, the learning I have acquired over the past 18 weeks has introduced a monumental change in my life because I can interpret legal precedents better, understand the concerns of the parties involved, and how best to argue my cases against the backdrop of these issues.

Therefore, the past 18 weeks have been instrumental towards identifying the lack of inclusivity in individual legal procedures and the high co-dependency between different criminal procedures which means that new legal changes and challenges can be solved using existing legal procedures to establish effective rules and precedents. More importantly, the past 18 weeks through paternity fraud has shown a new dimension in criminal procedures through the admissibility of digital evidence as well as DNA which is used in paternity fraud to prove that deceit occurred. However, there is a significant gap in terms of gauging the compensation to the victim. In the future, I will be interested in understanding the compensation procedures that can be applied to ensure justice is served for the damages that the defendant has incurred by bringing up a child yet not being the biological parent to the child or children.