Courts in Today’s Pop Culture

As Americans, we rely a great deal on the entertainment industry to educate us about things we don’t understand. In many ways, we live vicariously through the experiences of fictional characters and believe they learn many things from those fictional characters. For example, many people have said they learned about forensic techniques by watching the “C.S.I.” shows on television. They firmly believe that can assist in an actual criminal investigation because they have seen “experts” on television handle similar situations.

This same belief extends to Americans’ knowledge about the law and the judicial system of the nation. There are many things that fictional accounts of lawyers, judges, and courts confuse, muddle or simply make-up to meet the needs of their fictional account. Because the intricacies of the legal profession are not well known or explained in school or by the media, people often only have these fantastic accounts of the law to educate them to how it works “in the real world”. Consequently, the result is that the majority of Americans have incorrect beliefs of the law, judges, courts, and the persons that comprise our system. One of the main differences between fictional depictions of the court process and real thing is how a trial is portrayed. In reality, trials are long, boring procedures where attorneys debate, present evidence, and ask questions that have legal value for the judge or jury to arrive at a decision. Many things are said and many witnesses may be brought forth to make statements. It is only rarely during these proceedings that anything exciting actually happens. But, if one were to believe the portrayal in movies and on television, it seems as if every minute is interesting or exciting. Trials presented in movies such as “Sleepers” or “To Kill a Mockingbird”, make it seem as if shocking facts are revealed, surprise witnesses are discovered and quick thinking attorneys make major differences in every trial outcome. This simply