Donna Ballman - The Writers Guide to the Courtroom: Lets Quill All the Lawyers

By Alex Ferrer

Host of the nationally syndicated show, Judge Alex

I have lived most of my life deeply involved with the American system of justice. Starting as a police officer when I was 19; continuing through law school and the practice of law as a civil litigator; ten years as a Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge in the Criminal and Family Divisions and now as the host of the nationally syndicated court show Judge Alex, in which I handle disputes between people from all over the country.

Needless to say, I am very comfortable with how our system of justice functions. While everyone does not share my lifelong contact with the legal system, I am still amazed at how little the public really knows about their judicial system.

Make no mistake, the judicial system belongs to us. We pay handsomely for it through our taxes. In some states we elect the judges who make decisions that may seriously impact our lives, often without even knowing for whom we are voting. In other states, we elect people who will select the judges for us. When things go wrong, we ask our courts for protection or remedy in the form of justice.

A court verdict can make you a pauper or a prince. It can break up your family in ways that are unjust or ease you through the most difficult time of your life. It can set your children back on track after some transgression or change their life for the worse by reinforcing the wrong path. It can reunite families and start them anew. It can lock you up with the most dangerous of our society until your body is carried away in a box. It can give you a sense of closure, a feeling that justice was done. It can end your life by hanging, firing squad, lethal injection, gas chamber, or electrocution. And yet, most people have, at best, a vague, if not mistaken, sense of how our system of justice works.

The problem stems from the fact that most people do not get their legal education from a law library. Other than lawyers, most people have neither the time nor the inclination to put forth that kind of effort. So for better or for worse, television, movies, and novels have become the educators of today. And when it comes to education, nothing fascinates viewers as much as the law. Just peruse the TV listings and see how many popular law-related shows continue to air from season to season, only to be replaced by similar shows when they are eventually cancelled. But despite the quantity of law-related entertainment, the quality is often sadly lacking. With movies and television leading the pack, the public is left with a mistaken impression about how their system of justice really works, along with its strengths and limitations. Most people cannot tell you whether a judge can override a jury verdict, or whether an attorney can put her client on the stand if she knows he is going to lie.

And while some might brush these details off as minutiae, unnecessary in the world of entertainment, the opposite is actually true. Daytime court shows like mine are hugely successful, in large part because the public wants to learn about the law and the legal system. Granted, they also enjoy seeing people pay for their wrongs, but the mail I receive from viewers, as well as blog postings about court shows in general, make it clear that it is the law and the legal system that has them fascinated.

In movies, the more compelling legal thrillers are those that tie in true aspects of the law within the storyline. Just think how you felt when the judge was required to grant defense counsel's objection and exclude the damning evidence of medical malpractice at the end of The Verdict. The Scott Turow's and John Grisham's of the world are hugely successfully in large part because of the reality of their writing. Accuracy counts in so many ways.

That brings us to The Writer's Guide to the Courtroom. In this invaluable handbook, Donna Ballman covers every fact necessary to accurately write about the law or the legal system; from the roles of the characters in and out of the courtroom to the many and varied causes of action that can be raised as a legal claim. How judges are selected. The duties of bailiffs, juries, prosecutors, defense attorneys, court reporters, clerks and anyone else you can imagine. How law firms of every size function including the roles of everyone involved, from the managing partner to the law clerk. The discovery process, pre-trial motions, jury selection and matters that the jury never gets to hear.

In this one book, Ms. Ballman has given every writer, whether of novels, scripts or screenplays, access to a world of ideas with accurate fact patterns that lend credibility to their work.

Despite my comfort with our legal system, I find myself learning even more about the interrelationship of all of the players. I will definitely keep it handy. Perhaps I will write a book.

~ Alex Ferrer Judge Alex