Some of my favorite shows are Boston Legal, Suits, and the Good Wife. Sure, they’re entertaining, but do they even come close to representing the realities of the legal profession?
“Order in the Courtroom!” In almost every television courtroom scene, there are dramatic outbursts or laughter that prompts the judge to strike his gavel and yell, “Order in the Court!”. Lawyers yell and interrupt each other all the time on TV or the audience bursts into laughter. First of all, our professional code of conduct (plus a little common sense) requires lawyers to act civilly towards each other and conduct themselves professionally. Yelling and being theatrical would make the lawyer the laughing stock of the legal community and would not achieve anything (if anything, it would stand in his way). There are no surprises in civil trials, and in criminal trials the prosecutor faces strict rules of disclosure (that are not applicable to the defence, so sometimes the defence can “surprise” the opposing witness). The reality is that each piece of evidence has probably been prepared and reviewed for months before trial. In most instances, the strict rules of disclosure would almost certainly bar springing a surprise piece of evidence on the opposing party at trial. Sure, court can be exciting, but not that exciting.
Things take time. The legal process depicted on television ignores pretty much everything that needs to happen before a case can go to trial. There are usually months, or more likely years of pre-trial prep and waiting that happens before anybody sees the inside of a courtroom. Elle Woods yelled “Your curls are still intact!” in response to the witness’ claim that she was washing her hair when the victim was shot. The reality is that the witness’ perm would have grown out by the time of the trial because it would have been years after the murder. As much as we love to see Elle Woods catch the witness in a lie, it would just not happen in real life.
A lawyer’s expertise is probably limited to a few areas of practice. In Suits, Harvey and Mike have taken on cases dealing with criminal defence, intellectual property, patents, business or employment law, and commercial litigation, apparently having expertise in all facets of law. Jack of all trades… master of none. Lawyers need to stay up to date and knowledgeable in whatever area of law they practice. Depicting Harvey and Mike as overall legal experts would be like a surgeon who could do every kind of operation. The writers of the show want to come up with as many diverse and interesting story lines as they can but it just doesn’t work that way in real life.
Contributed by Casey Trivett, Lawyer
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