Series / Justice

Justice is a series focused on the main partners of big law firm Trott, Nicholson, Tuller and Graves (TNT & G) for short.

• TNT&G are:
  • Ron Trott (Victor Garber): He usually gives interviews to help making the client look innocent to the media. He's in a love-hate relationship with the hostess of "American Crime". As in, she loves the publicity from the cases he gets involved with and hates his attempts to use her show to make his clients look good.
  • Tom Nicholson (Kerr Smith): The All-American face of "not guilty", Tom Nicholson is usually the one to go to court to argue the cases because he's more liked by juries than Ron.
  • Alden Tuller (Rebecca Mader): She recruits mock juries to test a defence's chances of success. Whenever she goes to court, she wears a ring out of a belief the jurors will take her more seriously if they think she's married.
  • Luther Graves (Eamonn Walker): Used to be a prosecutor before joining the law firm. Because of this, he has some idea of what to expect from the attorneys prosecuting the firm's clients. He's also a leader of the local African-American community.

This series contains examples of:

• Always Murder: Averted. Two episodes are over civil wrongful death cases. A further two are tried as murders but turn out to be an accident and an act of self defence.
• Amoral Attorney: Ron has a bit of this with his win at all costs attitude.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Karen Patterson from Fillicide, and Ben Horner from Prior Convictions. DM Eckstein from Crucified may count, but he doesn't exactly act pleasant either.
• Blood-Splattered Innocents: "Wrongful Death" opens with a woman being killed in a roller coaster accident with her 14 year old daughter in the seat next to her.
• Brick Joke: In "Wrongful Death" Ron tells the girl they are representing that she must not cry on the stand, during cross she breaks down and it turns out to be Ron pulling a Batman Gambit on the opposing lawyer knowing he'd claim that she was instructed to cry and it'd make him look like he'd kicked the girl's puppy to death in the middle of the court room in the eyes of the jurors.
• Cold Opening: Usually of a TV report on the case.
• Downer Ending: TNT&G doesn't win every time; in one episode they win but they know one of their clients is guilty, and in another they lose and the epilogue shows the client is innocent (although they do have an appeal).
• Even Evil Has Standards: Taking in to account public perception of high price defense lawyers. In "Wrongful Death" Ron says while he uses spin that corporate lawyers are "the worst".
  • Ron also appears upset after winning in a murder case as he realises one of their clients is most likely the killer but they couldn't figure out which one.
    • Luther is openly disturbed when he learns that the jury in the first Joshua Morton trial (one he prosecuted) convicted him because they were bothered he didn't take the stand in his own defense AND because Joshua's lawyer was utterly incompetent, which meant that for all intents and purposes Joshua didn't have a defense.
• Friend to All Children: Alden is consistently compassionate to the two teenage clients they have, and is the one in charge of taking care of them.
• Face–Heel Turn: Luther leaving the DA's office to become a defense attorney is seen as such by at least one of his former colleagues.
• Foil: The four TNT&G lawyers make two sets: Ron is concerned only with winning cases and not of the client's guilt or innocence, while former DA Luther is concerned with making sure justice is done. Tom works best when he feels sure of his client's innocence, Alden generally assumes her client's guilt so she isn't disappointed if she loses.
• Good Is Not Nice: In order to save their innocent client in Episode 13 the team is forced to accuse a grieving father of causing his son's death by ignoring the defendant's warnings about a bookcase in his son's room. They're not happy about it but it does save the client and in the end we see that it was in fact the kid climbing the bookcase that got him killed.
• Hard Truth Aesop: In Episode 13, the message is "an innocent person shouldn't loose their freedom to protect a grieving family's feelings."
• Jerk Ass Has A Point: In Episode 13 the heroes are forced to accuse the parents of the victim of negligence in order to save their client. Alden is visibly hesitant but as Ron points out "who leaves a 15 foot tall bookcase where a child can climb it?" As the end of the episode shows that is in fact what happened.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Tom has this when his prejudice caused an innocent client to be convicted, and Luther has this when he realizes that the guy he convicted 15 years ago really WAS innocent.
• Necro Cam: The show's main gimmick is that, at the beginning of each episode, you'd see what the jury believed had happened, with what really happened at the end. In at least one case, it was shown that the wrong person went to jail.
• Never My Fault: The victim's father in Episode 13 ultimately caused his son's death by both leaving a tall bookcase where the kid could climb it and ignoring the defendant's warnings because he was drinking. Even after it's spelled out for him in no uncertain terms he continues to blame the victim because he can't admit his own incompetence is what got his child killed.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In Episode 6 the defendant's father tries to take credit for the murder when he had an alibi, which makes the DA convince the jury (who had been leaning towards the defendant) to change sides. On the other hand the fact that Colin is willing to defend his father even after he learns this is what finally convinces Tom that Colin's innocent (he is).
• Pet the Dog: Alden, who's otherwise a cynical hardass, is consistently compassionate to the two teenage clients they have.
• Pompous Political Pundit: Suzanne Fulcrum, the presenter of the political Show Within a Show American Crime, was extremely quick to label the accused person of the week guilty, especially because said accused person had TNT&G as lawyers (she had a very big beef with Ron Trott). The trope is played with because a few of said clients really were guilty.
• Proscenium Reveal: One episode started with what seemed someone murdering somebody else but then it's revealed it was the prosecution recording a dramatization of what they claim to have happened to a Victim of the Week.
• Real After All: In the pilot, the team defend a man accused of hitting his wife on the head several times and dumping her into the pool to drown. The best they can come up with is to argue that the wife slipped on the pool steps and hit her head a few times by accident. It's clear even they don't believe it and when the jury finds the man not guilty, just accept they helped him get away with murder. But in the final scene, the audience discovers that "impossible" scenario is in fact exactly what happened.
• The Reveal: The epilogue of each episode shows how the victim really died.
• Show With In A Show: The show sometimes has a Cold Opening with the case being discussed on a show called American Crime.