The right to sue essay

The work of a police officer is very dangerous as it is connected with the physical risk in the line of duty. A police officer performs responsible field enforcement. There is some amount of danger associated with the profession and the officers are aware of it. Those who choose a career of a police officer know the possibility of physical injury or death will always be present.

Recently the number of line-of-duty injuries increased greatly, especially the intentional attacks upon officers. Today the risk of injury or death is still a part of the law enforcement profession.

In spite of the raising number of assaults, the police officers do not generally attempt to use the civil courts. A certain number of civil suits have been brought by police officers for injuries connected with the job but the thing is that the number of cases considered by the trial is too insignificant in comparison with the number of injuries being suffered by the officers.

Recently there is an increase in the number of injuries being suffered by the police officers. This is the reason of the increase in civil actions.

The right to sue

The injured police officers do not usually use the civil courts because of the possibility to obtain compensation. Theoretically, every police officer is protected by the department or agency via some form of plan provided with medical care and protected against loss of salary in the case of injury. The amount of compensation varies greatly in nature and scope of coverage, and many of them give just the minimal protection (Aitchison, 2000 p.103). Nevertheless, many police officers who suffer a line-of-duty injury are provided with the medical care, and continue to obtain their salary during some part of the time or even all the time of incapacity for work.

Besides, it is not difficult to get this type of compensation. So that the police officer does little or does anything for obtaining the compensation as such service is usually given directly by the departments (Aitchison, 2000 p.148). So when all the compensations are received and all the bills are covered the officer does not feel the need to sue the initiator and will not pursue the case in a civil court.

In some cases the injured police officer may have the wish to sue the initiator. The thing is that the law enforcement agencies will ask or even force informally, as a case of policy, their workers not to file civil suits based upon cases happened in the line of duty. This request can be expressed informally.

Additionally, the department – a place where the officer is working – and the police officer himself may be affected by the people from the department itself. It is not encouraged by the public, political leaders and civil rights groups to sue the initiators by the police officers (Urofsky, 1989 p.76). They oppose the use of civil suits by the officers.

There exist the difficulties of getting the legal representation as it is not so easy for a police officer to find the lawyer who will present him in the court (Urofsky, 1989 p.98).

Many lawyers do not know the possibilities while presenting the police plaintiffs in the civil court. Additionally, the legal representation costs good money and officers do not want to pay the costs (Urofsky, 1989 p.153). Sometimes, it is arranged to pay a percentage from the final recovery but lawyers fear that such cases will not give any benefit.

Also, it is difficult to get a favorable judgement. The law system has some anti-police bias that prevents the officers from getting the recovery. These unjust rules stop many officers to file to civil court.

Still, even if a favourable verdict in court is obtained, the lawyers are afraid of being unable to collect anything from the defendant after the judgement is rendered (Broder, 1999 p.54).

Hence, both the officer and the lawyer may regard it a waste of time to bring an action when it seems likely that any resulting judgement will be a defeat.

Although the difficulties discussed above are essential, one of the most important reasons of the lack of use of the civil courts by injured police officers is the attitude of the very police officers (Aitchison, 2000 p.72).

All the people are different, and the police officers as well. They see the cases from various points of view. There exists distrust in the court system and in lawyers. That is why they do not want to waste time and money trying to win the process in the court (Aitchison, 2000 p.231).

Also it is a wide-spread opinion among the police officers that the injury at the work is a part of their job and they should accept it as a matter of fact (Broder, 1999 p.67). Many officers think that their departments are the so-called small organizations that must solve the problems by themselves and not to apply to any other institutions when an injury is received (Aitchison, 2000 p.365). The officers tend not to show their weaknesses to other people when the injury is not serious, especially to their co-workers.

So, the combination of antipathy and pride does not allow the police officers to file civil suits but this tends to change with time, especially when the injury is serious.

In spite of all the difficulties, the trend is presently toward the use of the civil courts by the police officers in the role of plaintiffs.

Conclusion

The paper briefly tells about the ability for the police to sue anyone for damages. This work is an analysis of the ability for the police to sue people for hurting them while they are on-duty.

It is a well-known fact that there exist some difficulties in suing for damages by the police officer. There is a system of compensations so that the officer has no need to sue the initiator and will not pursue the case in a civil court. Besides, it is not encouraged by the law enforcement agencies to sue the initiator.

The present paper gives the detailed material on the topic, while pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of the situation.