<p>I know that the majority of lawyers rarely set foot in a courtroom, but I'm more specifically interested in trial work, either being a prosecutor or defense attorney.</p>
<p>So, I always here, "Law and Order is nothing like the real thing. . .", "John Grisham's books aren't an accurate depiction. . ."</p>
<p>In terms of?????</p>
<p>I don't really understand fully, as I've had the opportunity to "try" a "case" and it seemed like it was fun. . .</p>
<p>They're unrealistic in a number of ways.</p>
<p>1) The lawyers work on one case at a time, and have all the time and money they need to do a complete investigation.</p>
<p>2) They never do the boring parts of the job.</p>
<p>3) They never do routine cases. Most cases aren't nearly as interesting.</p>
<p>4) At least on the civil side, cases take much longer even to reach trial.</p>
<p>5) They skip the boring parts of the trial as well.</p>
<p>6) They have better writers than the average lawyer!</p>
<p>7) And of course they sometimes get the law wrong (or stretch it a bit) to make the drama more interesting.</p>
<p>I know they arent completely realistic, but Ive learned a ton of things about law and courtrooms from reading grisham and O'Shaughennessy while really enjoying myself.</p>
<p>The best part about grisham's stories are his commentary on how inefficient the system is. For example the jury in Runaway Jury that has about 1300 pages of evidence to read, and skims it over in 10 minutes. or the judges and DAs who make decisions for political reasons. Or the lawyers who use unethical billing tactics.</p>