The impressions of legal procedure that appear on the silver screen and television often provide riveting drama, but they often have very little to do with actual legal procedure. The give-and-take between Robert Downey, Jr. and Robert Duvall, playing son and father in The Judge, evocatively portrays the issues in their relationship, but their conversation almost certainly would not have taken place in open court. Also, one does not imagine that the outburst Duvall’s character makes after the end of the cross-examination has come to an end would have ever taken place in a real court. The philosophizing Continue reading...