|
|
|
|
|
Pat Parker Case
|
|
|
Introduction The Pat Parker (Parker) case is about a lawyer who started his own firm concentrating on writing reports and conducting political opposition research for political candidates. Parker successfully built a thriving business by providing political opposition research. Him primary customer group has been the Demographic Party. Parker provided research for all levels of political campaigns in Florida. Parker developed a billing system based on the type of campaign. This particular case is about how Parker devised a research report for one particular political candidate. Then two years later, the Trial Lawyers, who supported an incumbent Republican candidate, wanted to buy the report on the Republican Attorney General. The believed purpose of this was to offer the report to the candidate, which would allow him to prepare defenses for the upcoming campaign. Parker was unsure on how to proceed knowing that this could potentially jeopardize the Democratic Party’s candidate or even worse, the Republican candidate could be arrested for soliciting the information. Would Parker be violating contract law? Would Parker be infringing the copyright law? Would Parker be violating campaign statutes and other codes of ethics? The ethical questions of this case seem quite simple. The fact that Parker initially accepted the request from the Trial Lawyers, and then began to have second thoughts about it shows that Parker is was having an ethical dilemma. Parker knew that there where both ethical and legal concerns about this action. The legal questions of this case are what are of interest here. Caring Lens In using this lens to evaluate the ethical issues of this case we must address the universal morals of the society when the dealing with those who rely on us. Parker must look at their customers and how they treated them. Looking at only the ethical issues outlined in this case, Parker showed poor caring ethic. It was stated in the case that Parkers’ primary customers where the Democratic Party. It is stated that the business had been built on word of mouth throughout the Democratic Party. Parkers’ first response should have been to protect the customers that where already with the company. Regardless of the second thoughts and the legal research after the fact, Parker failed in caring ethic by saying yes to the Trial Lawyers. This put the company in a very poor ethical position moving forward, and could actually cost the company their largest customer base. In the interview Parker stated that no Republican group to the date of the case had contacted the company. It seemed by the information provided in the case that Parker reacted to the allure of the “quick buck.” This was research that was two years old, and was not acted upon when it was initially produced. This is further proof that Parker showed poor caring ethic to the primary customers of the company, and extremely poor caring ethic to the company itself. Utilitarian Lens The utilitarian ethics approach is to maximize the greatest good to the largest number of members of a society, while minimizing the impact to the smallest group possible. The technique is a simple balance sheet of good verses bad when evaluating the impact of an ethical question. Using this lens, Parker again failed ethically to the primary customers of the company. As stated previously, Parker was trying to sell the report that was produced previously. If Parker wanted to maximize his utility ethic to his primary customers, the Democratic Party should have been notified prior to telling the Trial Lawyers “yes.” If the Democratic Party was notified and they where able to make the decision to sell the report or not, the utility ethic of the company would have been served.
|
|
|
|
Still Can't Find What Your Looking For? Then Try a Essay Search!
|
