Law and Movies

Although no courtroom dramas like To Kill a Mockingbird or A Few Good Men, or even My Cousin Vinny are among the major movies this year, quite a few have interesting legal themes. Michael Clayton, for example, while offering a not very realistic view of a law firm "fixer," does illustrate the ethical dilemmas of representing a client which is hiding some very damaging information. Tilda Swinton, as the general counsel, takes an extreme approach to client loyalty, by actually getting involved in killing witnesses. One hopes that her fate will dissuade others from following her example. And Tom Wilkinson, as the outside lead trial lawyer, does a beautiful job of going off the deep end when he can no longer stand representing a guilty client. Of course the ethically and morally correct answer is to follow neither of these examples. There is no reason why a lawyer cannot represent a client that is not a perfect angel, and still sleep well at night. But you have to disclose the damaging information if it was requested by the other side (presumably they are competent enough to do that) and then get the best result you can for that client in light of that information. Following this simple rule should prevent most lawyers from committing murder or suicide.

Then there is Atonement, which I haven't seen yet, but that does not stop me from commenting because I did read the book. One key situation arises because of the legal system's limitations in dealing with the reliability of eyewitness testimony. The law can only examine what witnesses actually ascertain through their senses, chiefly what they see and hear. But the mental process of observing is much more complicated than the law allows. In fact, it may be impossible for the mind to process a visual image without taking other information into account. So when young Briony "knows" who the guilty party is, she knows this by constructing a series of impressions that she did not properly understand. But the law forces her to say, erroneously, that she "saw" him commit the crime, leading to a tragic result. Judges and juries are only beginning to come to terms with the unreliability of eyewitness testimony. Often, though, it is all we have to work with. Stories like Atonement help us appreciate the pitfalls.

Sweeney Todd is gruesome but well worth seeing for its gorgeous music and production. Its central drama arises from the corruption of the legal system. Look at the trail of brutal murders prompted by the actions of one unjust and corrupt judge! Finally, we have in No Country for Old Men, as good an illustration as any of an essentially lawless society. The police are either corrupt or ineffectual, and the law of the jungle prevails. In such a world, even the heartless killer, as well as the heroic self-sufficient strong man, cannot survive.

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My.facebook

When my seventh grade son asked me if he could have a Facebook page, I was inclined to say yes, mainly because I was pleased that he was even asking my permission. After briefly looking at the site, I also thought it seemed harmless enough. So I gave him permission, on condition that I would have access to his page. To do that, it seemed I had to sign up for a Facebook account also so I could be one of my son’s “friends.” This process took less than five minutes.

I was not too surprised to find that many of my kids’ classmates have Facebook pages, and that they use them to express all kinds of silly stuff. What did surprise me a little, however, was how slow my own generation has been to get on board. A search for my high school, college, and law school classmates yielded none of my actual friends (though one turned up subsequently). I wondered why more people my age are not trying this new networking device. Are we such old dogs that we cannot learn any new tricks?

I also wondered whether more parents shouldn’t be monitoring their children’s Internet activities more closely to discourage the kind of rude, crude and sometimes lewd behavior to which the denizens of MySpace and Facebook have been known to succumb. I know that people don’t always realize that everything they say online could become public, and I hope my own online presence will help my kids remember that. But I also wonder whether or not I am the one going overboard by snooping into their private zones. Perhaps my son’s friends will think he is uncool for allowing his dad to be his friend. I certainly never thought of my parents as my friends when I was in junior high school. And I do not want to harm my children’s popularity, as I know that is of critical importance at his age.

Thankfully, my son does not seem to mind my presence. In fact, he likes to send me messages, and invites me to play games with him. And one of his friends even invited me to be a friend. And though it is no doubt necessary for our children to have areas of privacy and the freedom to express themselves to their peers, it may be even more important to break down some of the barriers between interest group communities in both the virtual and real worlds. We need not limit our friends to those of our own age group, or who share common interests, or who belong to our classmate or workgroup community. We can reach out to others whose interests and beliefs may diverge a bit from ours. We can even try to create some bridges to our own kids.

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