1- Identify two ways/things that film or TV gets wrong about lawyers or the legal process and explainhowthey get them wrong?

2-Attorney Lucy Liang inBreaking Down 30 Courtroom Scenes from Film & TVassesses the accuracy of 30+ on-screen scenes.

Select three of those scenes, identify the legal issue (e.g., objections, calendar call, expert witness, etc.) each, and analyze how well the film or TV scene depicts the legal issue.

Law & Lawyers on Screen

Most lawyers and practitioners of the law know that the work itself is often monotonous, tedious, repetitive, and drudgery almost entirely mechanical and emotionally detached.There's little cinematic about an attorney reviewing documents or answering interrogatories or pecking away at a keyboard.Where is the movie or show in all that?

Since most cases settle or plea bargain, the vast majority of cases never make it to trial.Most litigators rarely, if ever, see the inside of a courtroom.The combative spirit of the profession is mostly confined to angry phone calls and sniping letters.

So, why are the law and lawyers such attractions for artists in the humanities anyway?

Movies about the law are as essential to Hollywood history as cowboy Westerns or romantic comedies. Heroism that acquits the falsely accused will hold its own against any nonstop action flick.When the American Film Institute published its list100 Years . . . 100 Heroes & Villains, defense attorney Atticus Finch fromTo Kill a Mockingbirdtopped the list, beating out Indiana Jones and James Bond.

And Finch was no legal fluke.Other righteous legal heroes of the innocent made the list:Juror No. 8 from12 Angry Menholds spot 28, and Andrew Beckettthe corporate lawyer succumbing to both AIDS and its social prejudices inPhiladelphiamade the cut at 49.

From Shakespeare to Dickens to John Grisham, the world's great poets and dramatists, novelists and film directors have been enamored of the legal system for itsplotlinesandmorality tales.Artists in the humanities, in fact, are equal opportunity borrowers of justice both delivered and denied.Injustice can ruin a happy ending, but it also can open up possibilities for personal redemption. The literature of law values the object lesson over the cheap thrill.Audiences crave universal truths, and by the time the closing credits roll, movies about the law have left behind wisdom to live by.

Why do readers and audiences care so much about characters who come before the law seeking fairness only to be coughed out of courthouses feeling embittered and helpless? Is it voyeurism or heroism we seek?Perhaps it is boththe misfortune of one, the treachery of another, the promise that the banging of a gavel will restore order and that a crusading lawyer will make us all feel less alone. There is great drama and mystery in how justice is fashioned.Standing up for another in a court of law can surpass the exploits of even the Man of Steelwith far less sweat and without all that heavy lifting.

DRAMA INHERENT IN LAW

A courtroom can be as riveting as any Colosseum or OK Corral.

Artists in the humanities tell stories, and stories about the legal system are laced with human vulnerability. Those legal stories laced with human vulnerability are cinematic not because they are visual, but because the human experiencein all its complexityis on full display.How else to explain the magnetism of12 Angry Men? Nearly the entire movie takes place in a jury room. There are no car chases. Guns are never drawn. A murder takes place, but before the film even begins. The movement is limited to pacing men wearing pained faces, crowded into a jury room on a hot summer day. There is pervasive heat in an airless setting. Even the fan doesn't work. Rampant prejudice and prejudgment serve initially as substitutes for thoughtful deliberation.

Yet, even though12 Angry Menis shot in black and white, it is bursting with human color. Twelve men struggle with the task of balancing the evidence with their sum certainties and reasonable doubts.

Filmmakers find the choreography of the law irresistible. There are disputes between parties who possess vastly unequal resources. Impossible odds are sometimes lowered by timely intervention. The search for the truth is constrained by unseen obstacles, evil doings, and trapdoors. Punishment is obligatory but also complicated.Sometimes restraint is what is most required.

The universal appeal of the revenge movie is the righting of a wrong.But to do so often means leapfrogging the law, taking justice into one's hands. Yet revenge films are not entirely lawless. Their moral currency rests on the law having already failed. The avenger readies himself to settle the score only after justice is denied under color of law. When a wrongdoer seemingly gets away with a crime, the avengerand the audienceare mobilized by the morally unbearable.

Basic distinctions between right and wrong are best explained through stories. That's why storytelling is used to introduce children to the moral universe. And these stories, regardless of when they are received, enter through a different portal of knowledge. Whether around campfires, home entertainment systems or darkened movie theaters, the lessons learned enhance our moral development. And they linger long in our memories.

Movies about the law are not tutorials for budding lawyers but cautionary tales for enlightened citizensan expression of our collective longing for justice and fair treatment. Most people realize that the legal profession looks more exciting, or functions more diabolically, in a movie; but they aren't looking to pass the bar exam. They just want to be entertained and elevatedboth at the same time. Artists see the world in a different light, and human beings are well-served in following that lightespecially when projected onto a screen.

Finch naively informs jurors inTo Kill a Mockingbirdthat the legal system is the great leveler where Rockefellers are treated no more favorably than common people. The plaintiffs who bring a toxic waste wrongful-death case inA Civil Actioncome to learn a different reality.Frank Galvin inThe Verdictpleads with the jurors to look into their hearts before rendering their verdict, even though their hearts were never entered into evidence. The prosecutor Kathryn Murphy inThe Accusedrealizes that she owes a duty to the victim that is no less important than the laws of the state she is charged with defending. InA Few Good Men, defense lawyers are reminded that trials are about discovering the truth, no matter how difficult it sometimes is to handle.

We know that the legal system often falls short of these ideals. In keeping with Hollywood tradition, movies offer happier endings than what are found in novels and plays about the law.

After all, in movies, having one's day in court is possible. Neither procedural delay nor incessant discovery will stand in the way of a protagonist taking the stand or prowling the courtroom in lawyerly, gladiatorial fashion. Films about the law generally do not settle for less than justice. It is a small irony that justice is more likely to be found in movie houses than in actual courthouses, where the burden of overcrowded dockets is keenly felt and the cynicism about actual justice is widely shared.

Law film junkies are no different from other moviegoers: Everyone, to some degree, is looking for an escape from reality. For a few hours spent in the dark, imagination is transported elsewhere and disbelief is suspendedat least until the closing credits. It is during these moments when the lawyers of our dreams come to our defense, where judges are wise and jurors are merciful and the entire system of justice can be depended upon to uplift the human spirit and answer its prayers for relief.

https://www.businessinsider.com/what-hollywood-gets-right-and-wrong-about-lawyers-2016-11#true-its-a-tough-job-7

https://www.paralegaledu.org/2017/10/5-ways-movies-and-tv-get-the-legal-process-wrong/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we6qm0zXMYU