Good Lawyers, Good Clients: Difference between revisions

If the viewpoint of the show is that of a defense attorney, his clients will be innocent so often that the defendant being guilty is a subversion.

 

 

Of course, in [[Real Life]], both defense and prosecution exist for good reasons, because the matter of a defendant's guilt is uncertain. It's a bit odd that either side in a trial would be seen as a "good guy" or "bad guy" when they are, realistically, just people doing their jobs. Even if we know (somehow) that the defendant is guilty, the role of the defense attorney is still valuable, to ensure that the prosecution has actually proven its case.

 

See also [[Amoral Attorney]] for the Evil side.

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* In the [[Ace Attorney]] manga, Phoenix gets a call from Robin Wolfe, whose employee Eddie Johnson committed suicide on the way home from a meeting with him, leading Robin to be suspected for his murder, but [[Unreliable Expositor|there are several obvious lies in Robin's account]]. Phoenix and Maya, after talking to the rest of the people at Wolfe Manor, including Eddie's brother Brock, realize that Robin essentially drove Eddie to suicide by torturing him with spiders even if he didn't kill him himself, and decide to refuse to take his case. They go to look for him, but he's missing, and soon afterward, ends up murdered, and Phoenix ends up defending Robin's innocent brother Bobby.

 

== Comic Books ==

* Sometimes averted with Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson's law practice in ''[[Daredevil]]''. Most of the people they defend are indeed innocent (since Matt can hear the heartbeats to know when he's being lied to), but they believe enough in the letter of the law to have defended some real scumbags.

** One time in particular, Matt takes the case of a client who he believes to be innocent because of his heartbeat. It's only after he's gotten the client declared innocent of the charges that he realizes he ''was'' guilty, but had a pacemaker.

 

== Film ==

* Played completely straight in ''[[And Justice for All]]''. [[Al Pacino]] plays a scrupulous attorney who focuses on defending honest clients, then is blackmailed into protecting a rapist judge who enjoyed screwing with him. He breaks down and tells the jury he hates his client, then quits law forever.

** At the end of the film, after the [[Reset Button]] is pushed, Lomax takes the trope to heart and dismisses himself from the defense of a child molester.

** A very good example of [[Hollywood Law]]

* In ''[[Daredevil]]'', Matt Murdock will only accept innocent clients. Because of his super lie-detecting powers, he knows exactly who they are. But of course there aren't that many of them so the movie notes that the firm is nearly broke. To keep the legal scene more exciting in the movie, they apparently made Matt Murdock the prosecuting attorney in a rape case, [[Did Not Do the Research|which private attorneys cannot do]] [[Dan Browned|unless they have a prosecutor's brief from the state to take the pressure off a Crown Prosecutor or DA for that case.]] (Who said they didn't?)

** To be fair, he actually worked partly as a victim's advocate and represented the alleged victim, but they still don't actually make closing arguments like he did, only speak at sentencing (the defendant was acquitted). So it still counts as [[Hollywood Law]].

** It also gets [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]]: Foggy Nelson asks Matt if he remembers being taught in jurisprudence class that sometimes you have to defend people who might be guilty. Matt replies he was always bad at that bit.

 

== Literature ==

* In ''[[To Kill a Mockingbird]]'', Atticus Finch defends an innocent man, but his opponent (the prosecutor) is portrayed as a good person who's just doing his job. Interestingly, ''[[To Kill a Mockingbird]]'' mentions Atticus having defended obviously guilty people in the past, but because he's a good guy, he tried to make them [[Plea Bargain]].

* A historical novel about [[Abraham Lincoln]] and his wife included a scene from Lincoln's legal career in which he found out ''in court'' that his client, bringing a lawsuit alleging failure to pay a debt, had in fact been paid but believed the defendant didn't have any proof of paying him. When the client, caught out, shamelessly admitted his lie, Lincoln turned and walked out of the courtroom, telling the judge, "Your Honor, I'm going to wash my hands."

* See ''[[Rumpole of the Bailey]]'' in Live Action TV below - the books and Tv Series are remarkably similar.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

** Which would mean he ''knows'' if the guy is guilty ''before'' the trial...

*** Most lawyers will know exactly what their client thinks happened long before the trial starts, because a lawyer cannot prepare a good case unless you tell him everything. That's why we have attorney-client confidentiality. Keeping your own lawyer in the dark is like sending your champion out to fight for you blindfolded. That doesn't mean [[Too Dumb to Live|stupid people]] don't do it, of course ...

* On ''[[Shark]]'', whenever James Woods finds out that he's prosecuting an innocent person, he stops until the police can find a more likely candidate.

* Very much averted on ''[[This Is Wonderland]]''. Since the show is mostly about plea court, bail court, and mental health court, the question of whether the client did it is usually a non-issue, and the court will be about deciding what to do with them. A fair few clients plainly deserve to have the book thrown at them (and usually do), while others are more sympathetic, and occasionally get let off altogether.

** We also don't see most of Rumpole's cases (the series being very [[Irregular Series|irregular]]), of which he presumably loses a fair number. He also loses a few other cases that we do see.

** And finally, the one time Rumpole's client admits to him that she was guilty, he immediately says that he can't help her defense any longer and advises that she change her plea to guilty.

** For Alan Shore, besides the fact that he ''does'' lose very occasionally, it seems as though more often than not, his clients ''are'' guilty, he's just so damn good at jury nullification that they get off anyway.

** And of course played super-straight with a lot of other characters. Even when taking totally ridiculous cases with no real basis in law, the lawyers of Crane, Pool and Schmidt tend to score at least moral victories (for instance, a judge might give them the win on ethical grounds, knowing full-well that the case will be dismissed at the next appeal).

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

 

== Video Games ==

** Also, there's one case in which in the process of getting his client acquitted of a crime he didn't commit, {{spoiler|Phoenix actually, unknowingly, gets him acquitted of several (non-violent) crimes that he ''did'' commit. And because of double jeopardy, he can't be tried again}}.

* Subverted in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' with the Sunry murder trial. Sunry insists he's innocent, one of the key bits of evidence was planted at the scene, and the Sith advocate is a complete jerk... but if you hack into the Republic's computer records, you can find a video showing that Sunry did kill the victim. Confronted about this, he confesses but refuses to plead guilty, leaving you to decide whether to continue to defend him or hand the damning evidence over to the court.

 

== Western Animation ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:The Courtroom Index]]

[[Category:Crime and Punishment Tropes]]