Greedy Trial Lawyer
I Nominate Perry Mason For Sainthood
Category: Seeing Clearly Now
Thank God for Perry Mason.
Michael Asimow on Our Enduring Faith in the Adversarial System
Michael Asimow, University of California Los Angeles School of Law, has published "Popular Culture and the Adversarial System" in the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review for 2007. [From the abstract.]This article addresses a puzzle: lawyers are the most distrusted and despised of all American professions, whereas the public has a much higher opinion of judges. Yet Americans believe strongly in the adversary system in which all the important procedural decisions during civil or criminal trials are made by lawyers....
However, the article suggests another possible reason: the influence of popular cultural portrayals of the trial process. Dating back to the days of history's greatest teacher of trial tactics - Perry Mason - media consumers have been taught that the adversary system delivers the truth. We can count on a great lawyer's cross-examination to reveal the identity of the real killer. Even though we hate and distrust lawyers, we want a good one by our side when we're in trouble or an aggressive one prosecuting the crooks. Countless films and television shows since Perry Mason's day have conveyed the same basic message, although in more sophisticated form.
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.greedytriallawyer.com/admin/mt-tb.cgi/409