Did I Forget to Mention Memphis? Home of Elvis and the Ancient Greeks
Since some readers are apparently a bit "sensitive" to my comparison of certain quarterbacks with SEC lineage and impending global pandemics, let's switch topics, my friends.
In the first, and possibly only, edition of "How Law School has ruined my ability to enjoy certain movies, TV shows, and books", I'm going to focus on everyone's favorite cross-examination of the early 90's, Lt. Daniel Kaffee versus Col. Nathan Jessup.
All throughout P.C., Prof. P.C. I, Prof. Evid, and Prof. CivPro constantly reminded us of the perils of asking open-ended questions on cross. If there's anything worse than asking a question you don't already know the answer to, it's probably asking a question which gives the adverse witness an opportunity to get his or her side of the story across to the judge and/or jury.
Well, let's just say that based on the open-ended questions asked by Lt. Kaffee at :11 and :19, he was probably just asking for the diatribe that he received from 1:42 to 2:52. Sure, he somehow against (almost) all odds broke down a Marine Colonel who did multiple combat tours in Vietnam and caused him to admit his guilt to a shocked courtroom, but that's what we call playing with fire, my friends.
Everyone out there, please feel free to share the movies, TV shows, and books that law school has ruined for you.
Note: Many thanks to Tim Goines and Ryan Gregerson for the discussion that sparked this post.
Labels: A Few Good Men, Law school, Practice Court
posted by Justin @ 4/29/2009 10:02:00 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Law school has ruined John Grisham for me. You'd think that a lawyer would write things right, but he always plays with details, and I spend hours trying to figure out whether he did it on purpose for the story or whether the editor did it to smooth things for the reader.
And there's also the ill-fated Eli Stone. I wanted to like that show, but when the first two episodes' premises are (1) defense lawyer crossing the aisle in the same case to win big for the plaintiff and (2) squaring off against your fiancee in a divorce-immigration fiasco . . . I just couldn't hang.
"Law & Order", of course. I still enjoy it and watch it, but I can barely listen to the cross examination questions and the objections.
Most action movies have been ruined for me at some level. I watched "Jurassic Park" for the first time in years, and I couldn't help but think of the massive liability issues at that park, even if Velociraptors *didn't* break out and kill everyone in sight. How could you have a fence low enough that guests could climb over to get to a sick Triceratops?
Yee,
Great point about Jurassic Park. I think the dinosaurs just realized what a crappy lawyer that guy was going to be and decided to give him the ignominious death of being eaten on a toilet.
Jeremy,
I never saw "Eli Stone", but from the description of the 1st episode, it looks like they didn't want to be troubled with minor things like conflicts of interest.
Post script: Just got done watching Changeling with Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich. The (supposed to be) cathartic courtroom scene where her lawyer shows the world how evil the LAPD is . . . I just kept thinking over and over again "Object to sidebar. Object to sidebar. Object to sidebar."
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