What Movies and TV Get Wrong About Criminal Law
Legal dramas aren’t accurate representations of the justice system
One of the negative side effects of going to law school and practicing law no one ever warned me about was that I’d never be able to watch a legal drama the same way again. Gone are the days when I could just enjoy an episode of Law and Order or sit through a movie like Primal Fear with an uncritical eye. Six years of criminal law practice made that impossible.
Movies and TV often take a lot of poetic license when it comes to the legal system. Sometimes, they take a bit too much and leave us with a product that fundamentally misrepresents what the justice system actually includes.
Here are four ways that TV and movies get the reality of practicing law wildly wrong.
Lawyers giving unsworn testimony
In almost any legal drama worth its salt, there comes a time when the passionate and righteous attorney has had it up to here with an opposing witness’ lies and deceit. So the lawyer launches into a full-blown diatribe about what the evidence really shows, what the truth really is. The jury dutifully nods along, quietly agreeing with the fed-up lawyer, while the chastened witness just sits there taking it.
