History Main / ArtisticLicenseLaw

** The DL-6 incident (the death of Gregory Edgeworth) 1. has a statute of limitations of fifteen years, 2. had one defendant already tried and 'acquitted' for reasons of insanity (destroying his reputation and causing his fiancee to commit suicide), and 3. had a second defendant who was a child at the time but insisted on pleading guilty to murder. Even though there are a dozen reasons to doubt his testimony/culpability, the prosecuting attorney (the defendant's ''mentor'' and legal guardian for some years) insists on trying the case immediately (the statute of limitations will expire that very day). It's almost by pure luck that the real criminal gets exposed before a wrongful conviction ruins a second man's life.

* ''Series/{{Yellowstone}}'':
** In season 4, Montana Attorney General Jamie Dutton watches a man bump into his secretary with coffee and jokes, "That's called battery!" However, in Montana, "battery" is not a crime. There is assault, aggravated assault, and assault with a weapon. This instance is odd since this very distinction comes up in season 3 when John Dutton tries to tell a woman who assaulted a cop that she's actually charged with "battery," only for her lawyer to correct him that the charge is in fact "assault."
** In season 4, there is a subplot hinging on whether a woman will "press charges" against Beth for aggravated assault. Jamie talks her out of it by reading from her police report, and the matter is dropped. However, private citizens don't determine whether someone will be prosecuted for a crime. They simply file a police report, and the district attorney makes the decision. So with the report already filed, Jamie would should have had to convince the district attorney not to prosecute.

** In real life, the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention cited actually ''doesn't'' outlaw bioweapons; those are covered by a different set of treaties (the 1925 Geneva Protocol prohibits their use but not their creation, while the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention outlaws them altogether). However, Burnham also cites a fictional 22nd-century version of the Conventions under which these are apparently covered.

** ''Spirit of Justice'' gives us a threefold example in the form of [[MilitaryBrat Armie Buff]]'s RC helicopter, Sergeant "Sarge" Buff. First off, why they would allow an RC helicopter with ''functional'' weapons into the courtroom, even if it's a toy, is beyond understanding. Any sane judge would have it swapped out with a simple two-way radio. Second, said weapons are used ''repeatedly'' against Apollo over the course of the drone's testimony. The third example is recursively twofold in that at one point, Athena's Mood Matrix session is interrupted when Sarge steals Widget, and when the judge tries to bring order to the court, Sarge steals his gavel as well before he can use it, and threatens to turn the case into a military tribunal with Sarge as the judge (not the person, the toy chopper). Immediately thereafter, an attempt at getting the stolen items back results in a firefight breaking out between Athena and ''two'' bailiffs vs. Sarge. Altogether, even if Sarge ''was'' allowed in lieu of something more practical, the various antics it causes would normally result in Armie being charged with theft (Widget and the judge's gavel[[note]]Theft of Government Property in the case of the latter, which is much worse than simple Petty Theft.[[/note]]), assault (attacking Apollo, Athena, and the bailiffs), and contempt (everything else), and had their testimony thrown out on grounds of insanity as a result. And even if Armie was allowed to continue, Sarge would have been confiscated and replaced with something less likely to attack those around it.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':

** {{Lampshaded|Trope}} in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E62ShadowPlay Shadow Play]]". In trying to prove that it is all part of his dream, Adam Grant points out to the district attorney Henry Ritchie that he was convicted and sentenced to death on the same day, which doesn't happen in reality. He is also executed very shortly after his conviction, which is highly unusual in the United States.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E146IAmTheNightColorMeBlack I am the Night - Color Me Black]]", Jagger is [[PublicExecution publicly executed]] on May 25, 1964. The last person to be publicly executed in the United States was Rainey Bethea in Owensboro, Kentucky on August 14, 1936.

* "The Joker's Millions" revolves around ComicBook/TheJoker retiring from crime after he received an UnexpectedInheritance from deceased rival mob boss King Barlowe, only to find out too late (after [[AFoolAndHisNewMoneyAreSoonParted binge-spending it]]) that he was pranked as most of the inheritance was CounterfeitCash. Joker is now torn between admitting he's been had by a dead man and become Gotham's punchline (which he won't do due to his ego), getting jailed for tax evasion (which he won't do either), or returning to street crimes so he can save his reputation. In reality, Barlowe's SpitefulWill would have been rendered null and void had Joker opted to verify that the inheritance is legitimate.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'': In the episode "Vision Quest" (in which the gang gets trapped in an elevator), the 911 operator dismisses Ray's call for help as a prank call, because "you can't get stuck in an elevator!" and hangs up on him, then blocks his number when he tries to call her back. Such a thing in real life would be a ''massive'' violation of 911 center policy,[[labelnote:*]]Mind you, a 911 calltaker ''can'' hang up on you, but only in very exigent circumstances which require the calltaker to have almost definite evidence that the caller does not require or is refusing emergency aid, and/or the caller has given all necessary information and there is no plausible reason to remain on the phone with them (such as if the caller were in danger or in an unstable state), and in such cases usually indicates to the caller that they are going to disconnect the line.[[/labelnote]] and besides, 911 does not have the ability to block your number. The operator who disconnected on Ray would likely be fired at the very ''least,'' and at the worst could see civil or even ''criminal'' charges leveled against her for criminal negligence, especially if someone was hurt or killed due to first responders being delayed from rendering help. Additionally, you ''can'' get stuck in an elevator -- it is actually a very real and ''very dangerous'' situation, especially since it can indicate a larger-scale incident such as a structure fire or impending building collapse.

** At one point SHIELD tries to arrest Ororo Munroe for being an unregistered power user, with full knowledge that she is the Queen of Wakanda. This plot point is just quietly dropped after the rest of the X-Men help her get away [[SupermanStaysOutOfGotham and for the most part stay on the sidelines for the rest of the event]], but you have to wonder how the heck would SHIELD handle the international incident they just caused.

* The plot of ''ComicBook/CivilWar2006'' revolved around a SuperHeroRegistrationAct, with some heroes being for it and some being against it. The Artistic License comes in from several pro-reg heroes attempting to enforce the law before it had been signed. In other words, they were trying to enforce a law that wasn't a law yet.
** Even once it's signed, the law would take still quite a large amount of time to be fully implemented (Laws generally do not go into force the moment they're signed, if for no other reason than to give time for the people responsible for enforcing them to be briefed on what they now can or cannot arrest people for). This is also ignoring the various constitutional challenges such a legislation would likely face, especially since it's basically singling out an entire group of people and forcing them to work for the government.

* "The Trial of Peter Parker", a story that took place during ''ComicBook/TheCloneSaga'' was pretty much entirely this trope. Peter was framed for murder by his clone, Kaine. The murder took place in Utah. The trial occurred in New York City. The prosecutor opened with prejudicial statements that would have gotten an immediate objection from anyone remotely qualified to practise criminal law. The prosecutor then summoned a surprise witness (artistic license in itself) who turned out to be none other than Mary Jane! Aside from the fact that she hadn't been informed that she was going to be called as a witness beforehand, the fact that she was Peter's wife would have made her immune to being forced to testify against him. The prosecutor asked her a total of one question, which he then used to openly accuse Peter of being a murderer, then dismissed her without allowing the defense to cross examine. The story cut away to other events, and when it came back to Peter's trial the jury was preparing to render a verdict despite it apparently being the same afternoon as when the trial had started. In reality, a murder trial would take weeks before the jury would vote on the verdict. On top of that, the prosecutor asked them to apply the death penalty, despite sentencing being an entirely separate affair that would have been done at a later date with an entirely different jury.

** In ''Film/IronMan2'', during the Senate Committee hearing, [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Senator Stern]] orders Rhodes to read a single line from his report on the Iron Man armor — ''clearly'' out of context — about Iron Man being a potential threat, then cuts him off before he could explain what he meant. Tony had every right to ask Rhodes to finish his statement. Of course, Rhodey [[LampshadeHanging calls out the Senator when he makes this demand]]. More generally, Tony's ownership of a weapons suite with mounted anti-tank missiles is blatantly illegal and would get him arrested in short order. As would his vigilante activities in the first movie, including flying out to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and shooting people. His refusal to share his technology with the government would also never stand. Legally, the government doesn't even have to ''ask'' him, they can just take it and invoke Eminent Domain, then compensate him a reasonable price[[note]]The issue then becomes the fact that Tony has made sure his gear simply ''will not work'' without his explicit consent (as discussed by Fury later in the movie), which is probably why the government is trying to shame him into giving it to them: the closest comparison is probably Apple refusing to help the FBI hack into an [=iPhone=] by invoking proprietary secrets: the government ''could have'' forced Apple to do it, but it would be incredibly time-consuming at best and may not work at all at worst[[/note]]. Which, in RealLife, they certainly would, considering the world-changing implications of a [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale 3 gigawatt clean reactor the size of an apple.]] Tony's stunt of [[HollywoodHacking "hacking"]] the monitors in the hearing would also be more likely to get him into further trouble rather than having everyone in the room in awe at how awesome he is.

* ''Film/TheHitmansBodyguard'':
** Massive liberties are taken to make Kincaid's testimony the only thing that can get Belorussian ex-dictator Dukhovich convicted at the Hague. A victim whose family was killed in front of him and was put in a work camp for three years has his ''entire'' testimony dismissed out of hand, with the implications that all of the other witnesses so far have had the same. Such testimony would not simply be declared "hearsay" (which, by the way, is when a witness is asked ''what they were told happened by somebody else'', not ''what happened to them personally'') and struck even if the defense claimed they were merely political opponents doing smear jobs. Somehow Kincaid was the only person to have [[spoiler:pictures]] as proof of Dukhovich's crimes despite this being set in the modern day and that is the only kind of evidence that seems to work.
** Also, it is entirely possible to have witnesses testify from remote locations. Kincaid could easily have testified on a video chat from his cell [[spoiler:and given the website information from there]]. This is common practice ''precisely'' when the witness might be endangered by coming to the trial.
** Even disregarding the above, you'd think the court would be a little more lax with the ExactTimeToFailure considering that ''someone tried to murder Kincaid en route to the Hague''.

* The ''Literature/JackRyan'' novel ''Literature/{{The Teeth of the Tiger}}'' has the protagonists running a privately funded assassination squad against terrorism suspects. This includes a stack of ''fill-form presidential pardons'' pre-signed by former President [[spoiler:Jack Ryan]] (naturally throwing in a contrast with the FoxNewsLiberal administration that succeeded him), just in case they get caught. Besides the dubious legality of such a concept in the first place, this does absolutely nothing for an operator arrested by a foreign government or even by a US state government: the President can only pardon ''federal'' offenses. For that matter, the President cannot issue a pardon in secret, after he has left office, or for anything that may happen in the future.

** She signed the contract in public while intoxicated and without a lawyer present. Since she was not of sound mind at the time, it automatically voids the contract. Not to mention that since Molly didn’t have a lawyer to go over the fine print, she didn’t know what exactly she was signing.

** It also had a case where the “good faith” clause would have applied. It was when the Gravedigger was having her hearing to see if she could be tried.
** Not to mention the many times the cases would have been endangered by Brennan’s interrogation antics or Booth not stopping talking after someone asked for a lawyer.

* In ''Series/TheFollowing'', a lawyer brings up the fact that FBI agent Ryan Hardy had recently been accused of lying, without offering any further explanation. Hardy [[LampshadeHanging fills in the blanks]], pointing out that the accusation came from a wanted serial killer. He's right to point out the worthlessness of the accusation, but it's incredible that a lawyer would try to introduce as evidence a message written on a wall in a murdered FBI agent's blood at the crime scene. He then tries to bolster his case by trying to introduce a confession by the dead agent, saying that the fact that it was blatantly coerced under threat of death doesn't mean it isn't true. He's correct, but it does of course mean it's inadmissible.

** In the SVU episode "Denial", a judge orders the ADA to bring charges against a witness for the prosecution. This is in blatant violation of every principle and custom of criminal law, in which the prosecutor has the total and absolute prerogative to bring charges against whomever they please (which a judge can then ''dismiss'' if they feel the prosecution doesn't have a case). Such blatant judicial overreach would almost certainly get the judge censured at the ''very'' least in any RealLife situation, and the ADA is outraged (and, of course, is found in contempt for arguing with the judge), but the judge gets away with it since the ADA's boss finds additional evidence against the witness and files charges over her head.

* ''Series/MyWorldAndWelcomeToIt'': When [[TheRunaway Lydia decides to run away from home]] in "The Disenchanted," John insists on accompanying her. He claims he's required to do so because of what he calls a "very well-known case." He cites it as "Puberty vs. The Senate," which says fathers have to go with their runaway daughters to make sure they get where they're going. John even says you can look it up in the Congressional Record if you don't believe him. Of course there is no such official law.

* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'': The series finale involves the cast being brought to trail for violating the "Good Samaritan Law" when they fail to help a man being mugged. In real life, good Samaritan laws protect people from being charged for accidental harm caused when they do try to help someone is danger. The trial is also filled with various examples, such as the judge allowing witnesses that have no relevance simply because the prosecution already paid for their travel expenses. Also, the maximum punishment for such a violation would be a $300 fine, not a one-year prison sentence, especially since there was a cop standing close by and not doing anything to help and even testifying to that effect. Even their fictional version of the law is stated to only require offering aid "when it is reasonable to do so" — any lawyer worth a damn could easily argue that there is nothing remotely reasonable about requiring random civilians to intervene against a possibly armed criminal. And they also recorded a video of the mugging - sure, it provides evidence of their {{Jerkass}} attitude (they were jeering the whole situation) but it also could have been requested as evidence for the mugging by the police and then let go.

* In ''The Tunnel'' episode of ''WebAnimation/CivilProtection'' Mike's reasoning after finding a corpse. Of course it's an totalitarian dystopia but still.

** The story climaxes when Phoenix and Twilight (initially) [[GuiltyUntilSomeoneElseIsGuilty struggle to present evidence implicating a person other than Dash in the murder and thereby clearing her name]]. Though it ''could'' be explained away as a quirk of [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Equestria's]] (and by logical extension, ''[[Franchise/AceAttorney Ace Attorney's]]'' pseudo-Japanese setting's) legal system, this violates a central tenet of RealLife criminal law, ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_dubio_pro_reo in dubio pro reo]]'' (When In Doubt, For The Accused). [[spoiler:At this point in the trial, the defence has already successfully dismantled much of the alleged evidence linking Dash to the killing, whittling the prosecution's case down to circumstantial evidence such as [[MotiveEqualsConclusiveEvidence Dash's possible motive]] as well as her presence near the crime scene — both of which make for a laughably flimsy case on their own merit[[note]]After all, Ace Swift still had ''several'' enemies and was killed in a publicly accessible place — in a world where flying, teleportation magic and electrocution spells exist, mind you;[[/note]] and offer plenty of grounds for an acquittal. The burden of proving the killing of Ace Swift by Dash (and that said killing constituted ''murder'' rather than, say, manslaughter) ''beyond'' reasonable doubt rests squarely with prosecutor Trixie;[[note]]beginning with reliably establishing the causality of Dash's actions, and continuing with the fact that murder generally requires intent; for that conundrum, see below;[[/note]] it's ''not'' on the defence to remove every last shred of suspicion]]. This principle turns out to be ''very'' well-advised when [[spoiler:it is ultimately revealed that Ace Swift had electrocuted himself]].

* The Website/YouTube channel WebVideo/LegalEagle is hosted by an attorney who among other topics [[ConversationalTroping critiques portrayals of legal proceedings in fiction]], such as the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E9TheMeasureOfAMan The Measure of a Man]]" (found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVjeYW6S8Mo here]]), "Film/MyCousinVinny", and even [[AmoralAttorney Lionel Hutz's]] antics in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''.

** Hilariously, while reacting to ''Film/Daredevil2003'', after witnessing all of Matt Murdock's legal foibles like ''outright missing his own opening statement'', he actually stops in his tracks to wonder if the titular hero is canonically meant to be a terrible lawyer. He asks [[https://twitter.com/NandovMovies Nando V Movies]] to elaborate on it and, naturally, [[InformedAbility Daredevil is meant to be one of, if not the, best fictional lawyers of all time]].

* ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'': In instances when Darkwing gets arrested, he is thrown into jail pretty much immediately without a hearing. On top of that, he is allowed to retain his Darkwing costume and identity while behind bars, instead of having to be Drake Mallard in a prison uniform.

** To be fairly honest, pretty much half of the stuff that he does would be more than enough to get him fired at the very least. Given how some of the injuries -- such as Heather's jellyfish stings -- could easily have fatal or life altering side effects -- like Trent eating poisonous blowfish -- have nearly killed the contestants, Chris, in real life, would have been fired, arrested, and likely jailed barely a third of the way through the first season.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'': In Fred Fredburger's debut episode, he gets called for jury duty, but his antics constantly interrupt the court hearing and clearly frustrate the judge and other jurors. In real life (or at least in the U.S.), Fred would be charged with contempt of court, or alternatively, he could be excused or accommodated for his clear mental disorder, but this is clearly not the case in the Underworld. Not to mention the exasperated judge forcing the jury to render a verdict while Fred is in the washroom, or one juror ''eating'' another who voted differently, forcing a tie.

* ''ComicBook/XMen'': The mini-series ''ComicBook/DaysOfFuturePastDoomsday'', as a showing the United States' downward spiral into the infamous ''ComicBook/DaysOfFuturePast'' timeline, has the Supreme Court somehow decide that the 22nd Amendment, which disallows a person from running for President for more than two terms, is now unconstitutional, allowing Reverend William Stryker to become a PresidentEvil for life. While the Supreme Court can ''interpret'' an Amendment if something is uncertain, they cannot just completely override an Amendment - that's up to the Senate, House and the states to do by creating a new Amendment to replace the offending Amendment.

* In ''Series/TheFollowing'', a lawyer brings up the fact that FBI agent Ryan Hardy had recently been accused of lying, without offering any further explanation. Hardy [[LampshadeHanging]] fills in the blanks, pointing out that the accusation came from a wanted serial killer. He's right to point out the worthlessness of the accusation, but it's incredible that a lawyer would try to introduce as evidence a message written on a wall in a murdered FBI agent's blood at the crime scene. He then tries to bolster his case by trying to introduce a confession by the dead agent, saying that the fact that it was blatantly coerced under threat of death doesn't mean it isn't true. He's correct, but it does of course mean it's inadmissible.

* In ''Series/TheFollowing'', a prosecutor brings up the fact that FBI agent Ryan Hardy had recently been accused of lying, without offering any further explanation. Hardy [[LampshadeHanging]] fills in the blanks, pointing out that the accusation came from a wanted serial killer. He's right to point out the worthlessness of the accusation, but it's incredible that the prosecutor would try to introduce as evidence a message written on a wall in a murdered FBI agent's blood at the crime scene. He then tries to bolster his case by trying to introduce a confession by the dead agent, saying that the fact that it was blatantly coerced under threat of death doesn't mean it isn't true. He's correct, but it does of course mean it's inadmissible.

* NoWarrantNoProblem: Varies by jurisdiction, but broadly speaking it is illegal in most jurisdictions (either barging into a house to obtain evidence without a warrant or stalking a suspect for the sake of PerpSweating). On the other hand, most searches ''are'' made without a warrant, it's just that there needs to be a lawful reason the cops didn't get a warrant.[[note]]"In plain view" is one exception (e.g., the police came to your door for an unrelated matter and spotted bales of cocaine all over the kitchen table through the window), others include "hot pursuit" (e.g., chasing an armed robbery suspect on foot and spotting them ducking into a friend's residence and following them in), "exigent circumstances" (e.g., strongly suspecting that someone stole a gun to commit a crime, and not having the time to secure a search warrant before they commit it, or hearing screams for help inside a building and breaking in to investigate), and most commonly, "consent" (e.g., someone who was pulled over consenting to a search of their vehicle).[[/note]]

** During the election arc in the first half of season three, President Dalton, after losing his party's primary and unable to win a majority in the electoral college while running as an independent, instead forces a three-way draw so that the election will be punted to the House of Representatives, where he ekes out a win. This part is perfectly legitimate under the quite unique UsefulNotes/AmericanPoliticalSystem (it's happened three times in real life), but after that his main rival, Governor Sam Evans, sues in Ohio, hoping to get the waiver of their sore-loser law that got Dalton on the ballot overturned under a lobbying law, thereby invalidating Dalton's win in Ohio and giving Evans the win. This idea ignores a fundamental fact about the electoral college: all the state popular vote does is ''suggest'' to the state's electors how the residents ''want'' them to vote, and all electoral college ballots are final once submitted. At most Evans might delegitimize Dalton's win and cause him political problems down the road, but he can't actually overturn the election once the electoral college and House have already voted.

* The ''Literature/JackRyan'' novel ''Literature/{{The Teeth of the Tiger}}'' has the protagonists running a privately funded assassination squad against terrorism suspects. This includes a stack of ''fill-form presidential pardons'' pre-signed by former President [[spoiler:Jack Ryan]] (naturally throwing in a contrast with the FoxNewsLiberal administration that succeeded him), just in case they get caught. Besides the dubious legality of such a concept in the first place, this does absolutely nothing for an operator arrested by a foreign government or even by a US state government: the President can only pardon ''federal'' offenses.

* ''Film/Rampage2009'': In one of his political rants, Bill claims that firearms purchases do not mandate background checks, and cites this as proof of the gun industry's greed making mass murderers such as himself possible (whether or not Bill himself believes this is ambiguous, as he's a ManipulativeBastard trying to create random chaos, but the point is not refuted in-film). In truth, this gets complicated. Licensed firearms businesses (where, obviously, the overwhelming majority of gun sales take place) or "[=FFLs=]" are obligated under federal law to perform background checks on ALL their customers. No matter the location -- there is no such thing as an Internet or gun show "loophole" for any lawful purchase. ''Private'' purchases, where one person might decide to sell a gun to one of their friends living in the same state, do not. If it's across state lines, an FFL will have to act as a middle-man. "Universal background checks" effectively places an additional tax on private individuals who probably cannot afford such a burden, in addition to possibly trespassing privacy rights. In other words, Bill's statement is ''technically'' correct in an extremely forgiving ExactWords interpretation, but wildly misleading all the same.

* NoWarrantNoProblem: Varies by jurisdiction, but broadly speaking it is illegal in most jurisdictions (either barging into a house to obtain evidence without a warrant or stalking a suspect for the sake of PerpSweating). On the other hand, most searches ''are'' made without a warrant, it's just that there needs to be a lawful reason the cops didn't get a warrant.[[note]]"In plain view" is one exception (e.g., the police came to your door for an unrelated matter and spotted bales of cocaine all over the kitchen table through the window), others include "hot pursuit" (e.g., chasing an armed robbery suspect on foot and spotting them ducking into a friend's residence and following them in), "exigent circumstances" (e.g., strongly suspecting that someone stole a gun to commit a crime, and not having the time to secure a search warrant before they commit it), and most commonly, "consent" (e.g., someone who was pulled over consenting to a search of their vehicle).[[/note]]

* RapeAndRevenge: The type of premeditated manhunts that are standard to this trope would be considered straight-up murder, especially when it's someone other than the victim themselves doing it. (See also CrimeOfSelfDefense.)

** Jennifer is called in by her new boss in the second episode and told that he wants to give her a case representing a superpowered client (Abomination, a.k.a. Emil Blonsky, from ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk''). The character in question directly attacked her cousin in a ''very'' public incident more than a decade beforehand (and tried to kill him), and Jennifer notes that this is a clear conflict of interest because it could lead to the jury's perception that she is biased towards one of the participating parties in the incident. Her boss tells her that if she ''doesn't'' represent Blonsky, she will be let go again... which is a completely-absurd notion. Conflict of interest is a ''very'' serious deal, and the connection between one of the representing lawyers to a subject in the case likely would have been brought up in pre-trial or discovery. (The show excuses it by claiming Blonsky signed a waiver which absolves ''her'' of any conflict-of-interest concerns, which is also not how the U.S. legal system works). No attorney in their right mind would put a legal defender on a case where they have a very public connection to one of the parties and attempt to hold it over their head in order to ensure continued employment.

* FrivolousLawsuit: Lawyers are required by law to make a reasonable inquiry into the factual and legal merit of every case before filing to reasonably ensure that it is legitimate. If they fail to do so, they can face sanctions up to and including disbarment if they have a lengthy history of accepting junk cases and have not learned their lesson from previous run-ins with disciplinary boards and angry judges. If an apparently worthless case is taken, then it likely either had enough merit (that may not be readily apparent) to justify accepting it, or the client lied or grossly misrepresented important details. If the client ''did'' lie or embellish details, it is the attorney's responsibility to cease representation as soon as they learn of the deception. Lawyers are sometimes depicted as eager to take on frivolous lawsuits on a contingency-fee basis. However, in addition to the above, they have a strong financial disincentive to do so. Repeatedly filing these as a ''pro se'' litigant is also a great way to be declared a vexatious litigant, which doesn't bar you from filing so much as it makes it incredibly difficult and expensive to do so as a way of curbing a lengthy, well-established pattern of abuse.