7 Ways Television Gets Lawyers all Wrong

1. Objections

An objection is one of the main ways lawyers in trials stop the other lawyer from asking a witness a question they aren’t allowed to ask. The word “objection” is one of most used terms in any television show involving the law. Nothing looks more lawyerly than an attorney standing up and randomly shouting “objection”. However, what television shows almost always get wrong is that objections must have a legal justification behind them.

Lawyers cannot merely shout objection because they do not like what the other lawyer is saying. The objection must be supported with legal reason. For example, an objection could be because the question was a compound question, and the witness is only required to answer one question at a time. An objection could also be because the witness was asked to speculate on events of which they are not experts, so the lawyer here would say “objection, speculation”. Ultimately, there are numerous objections that a lawyer can make, but when a lawyer simply stands up and yells objection without stating a reason for the objection, a real-life judge would never really grant that objection.

2. The time it takes to complete a case

Commonly on television, the defendant gets arrested by police, and then they are next seen during trial. Additionally, that trial typically takes merely a few days to complete. Television makes it appear as if people have their entire cases resolved within a week. The truth is, nobody goes through an entire trial within one week of getting arrested. Defendants typically must wait months to even get a trial, and even then, it can take several weeks or even months for complicated cases to reach their resolution.

When a defendant is arrested, they must be released from jail or arraigned before a judge within 48 hours. Arraignment is the stage where defendants enter a plea of guilty or not guilty. After arraignment, a trial readiness conference is typically scheduled a few weeks to a few months later. At this stage, the two sides will have exchanged all of the information that they have on the case to one another and the attorneys can announce that they are ready for trial. There are multiple stages to a trial, but even the most routine trials are at least 2 days long. Any instance of double homicides being tried in a few hours is completely unrealistic.

3. Lawyers are always in Trial

How often does the audience only see that slick haired fancy dressed prosecutor when they are arguing a case before a jury? They are seen in this limited scope of lawyering so often that it appears that their only job is to go to trial. The truth however is that this would not be economically possible. There are simply not enough judges, attorneys, or even courtrooms available for the number of trials that television alludes to. In fact, trial attorneys have so many other tasks to complete before trial, that it would be impossible for them to always be in trial.

While prosecutors and public defenders typically have more trials than other attorneys, this is not the only thing that they do. In fact, these attorney’s typically have large caseloads and as a result, they have to help with general arraignments throughout the week. The reason being that the majority of cases end in a plea agreement, rather than trial. This means that criminal law attorneys are in trial only a few times per quarter. Ultimately, the majority of their effective work is done outside of trial.

4. Lawyers acting as Investigators

Its midnight and the prosecutor is home sleeping. His phone rings and he arrives at a police station where he watches the police interrogate a suspect. He says, “let me take a crack at him” and proceeds to interrogate the suspect where he obtains a confession. Or, the prosecutor fails to get a confession but the suspect says a keyword that alerts the prosecutor to go the scene of the crime and find the missing murder weapon. These are both situations commonly seen in television shows. Lawyers are seen as quasi detectives who investigate their own cases. This however never happens in real life.

Lawyers hire their own investigators in criminal cases. Prosecutors have a unit of investigators that are typically active peace officers. Additionally, they rely on police agencies to investigate crimes that they are prosecuting. Public defenders also have a unit of investigators. Private criminal defense attorneys hire private investigators to investigate on their cases. Lawyers have neither the skills nor time to investigate on cases.

5. Lawyers are Rich

Lawyers on television are rarely struggling to pay their bills. They are either driving foreign cars or they are living in mansions. Additionally, lawyers on television occasionally have personal drivers and personal chefs. The truth is that lawyers seldomly make the kind of money that would allow them to live in mansions and high-rise penthouses. In actuality, the majority of lawyer’s live a middle-income lifestyle.

The average United States lawyer makes $126,930 per year. The lowest paid 25 percent of lawyers in the United States make $84,450 with the highest 25 percent making $189,520. Additionally, nearly 75 percent of attorneys graduate with student loan debt averaging $160,000. Fewer than 25 percent of law school graduates believe that their legal education was worth the financial cost. While the expectation for attorneys to live financially above the majority of other careers remains prevalent in television, the numbers indicate otherwise.

6. Public Defenders are Bad Attorneys

When thinking about public defenders, nothing is more memorable than the stuttering public defender in the film My Cousin Vinny. This alongside the countless instances on television where individuals hire a “real lawyer” instead of a public defender to improve upon their chances of staying out of jail all show that the public’s perception of public defenders is greatly mistaken. Public defenders are either seen as overworked, or unintelligent pretend attorneys unable to effectively litigate a case. The truth however is that public defenders are some of the most experienced trial attorney’s a criminal defendant could obtain.

Contrary to popular belief, public defenders are in fact state bar licensed attorneys. Public defenders have the same education requirements as prosecutors and private defense attorneys. Additionally, their salary nearly mirror those of prosecutors as they are both government funded positions. Public defenders are in court nearly every day working on cases, so they typically obtain court experience quicker than private defense attorneys. While it is true that public defenders are commonly overworked, their ability as attorneys is not as it is represented on television.

7. Prosecutors are Morally Perfect

Prosecutors are charged with getting justice for victims of crimes. These individuals are needed to ensure that the voiceless are represented and heard. On television, prosecutors are the cream of the crop, uptight, and morally unshakeable. The issue however is that prosecutors do not always follow this mold in reality. In fact, there have been many cases over the years of prosecutors failing to adhere to moral standards set forth by the state bar.

Prosecutors typically have to undergo a wide array of background testing before officially getting hired. This however does not prevent candidates from hiding shady morally abhorrent characteristics. In February 2022, a prosecutor was fired from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office for failing to provide the defense with exculpatory evidence, evidence proving that the defendant did not commit the crime. The same issue happened in October 2021when two attorney generals failed to provide evidence to the defense. The defendant in that case was actually sent to prison as it took seven years for the attorney general’s office to catch the moral wrongdoing. While it would be nice to have morally unshakeable public servants, it is unrealistic to expect that every prosecutor has those values.