History HollywoodLaw / LiveActionTV

** The New York state governor would have no control over the situation, as this is a federal prison. It would be the US President instead, with federal agencies like the US Marshals used to storm the prison.

** Lolly assaulted a police officer...''in Seattle''. Not only should she not be in federal prison, there also isn't even a reason to send her to New York - there are many federal prisons much closer to Seattle they could send her to.

* ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'': A number of inmates are in Litchfield despite not committing Federal crimes.
** Watson was arrested for armed robbery in New York City, and Poussey was arrested for ''trespassing'' in the same.

** Lolly assaulted a police officer...''in Seattle''. Not only should she not be in Federal prison, there isn't even a reason to send her to New York - there is a federal prison, FDC SEATAC, right in Seattle.

** President Oliver tells his staff to pass a law: "no old doctors." This comes to pass somehow, even though legislation begins with Congress, not the White House.

* ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'': Not so much the law itself, but the the logistics of how it is practiced. In the Season Two opener, [[spoiler: Piper is brought in to testify about Alex's supplier and gives some very unhelpful testimony.]] In the real world this might possibly happen, but a prosecutor would never in a million years put a witness in its case on the stand without thoroughly deposing them beforehand.

** It is highly unlikely that Ulrich, a man with a rape charge on his rap sheet, would ever be allowed to join the police force regardless of whether the charge was later dropped or not.

*** Ultimately, Season 3 takes this case of Hollywood Law and ends up [[RealityEnsues applying reality to it]], when immy tips off the insurance company about Chuck's mental illness. This causes them to raise malpractice premiums on ''all'' of HHM's practicing attorneys[[note]]While Jimmy did this with malicious intentions, some fans have pointed out that even if he hadn't, the insurance company would have inevitably found out about the illness on their own, just much later; Jimmy just made the inevitable happen sooner[[/note]]. Howard's patience with Chuck was already growing thin, and the insurance premiums going up because of Chuck's illness proves to be the straw that breaks the camel's back between them.

* ''Series/JaneTheVirgin'': Some of the ManipulativeBitch legal maneuvering that Petra pulls off to harass Raf would never hold up for a second in court.

** "Hubris": A warrant is issued to search the suspect's apartment but the courier hasn't brought it yet. Knowing the suspect will get there before the warrant, Det. Green sticks a toothpick in his lock to keep him from entering. The courier arrives a few seconds later and the police bust in and seize a videotape of the murders. The judge tosses the tape since the police secured the area before they had the warrant (even though they had reason to believe he'd destroy the evidence and were well aware the warrant had been issued). Then the judge allows the defendant to do two things he shouldn't have: call an alibi witness to perjure herself and take the stand to testify on his own behalf. Not only were the tapes admissible to cross-examine both of them but the defendant was clearly guilty of perjury considering he was [[AFoolForAclient representing himself]] and had personal knowledge he was suborning perjury. It is also ''totally'' legal to secure a scene if there's a concrete possibility that the evidence will be removed, destroyed, or otherwise endangered before the search warrant arrives. What the police ''can't'' do is start poking around, looking in drawers and such, before the warrant arrives.[[note]]As an example, if the police had strong reason to suspect that a criminal had evidence on his computer, they could secure the location and prevent the criminals from touching it. They couldn't actually fire it up and look at the contents until the warrant arrived, though.[[/note]]

* ''Series/Supergirl2015'': The president of the US is an alien who was born on another planet, which is a violation of US constitutional law. The president may only be a "natural born citizen." Any person privy to that information would be legally bound to see her removed from office or else be guilty of treason. [[spoiler: It's ultimately addressed in the series. The president's true identity is revealed in the first episode of season 4 and she leaves office in the second one to avoid a pointless battle in court.]]

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone2002'': One standard use of this trope with "[[FailedExecutionNoSentence if people sentenced to death cannot be executed for reasons beyond our control]], ''even after trying several times'', they are free" appears in "The Executions Of Grady Finch", among some other examples.

** "[[Recap/Daredevil2015S1E9SpeakOfTheDevil Speak of the Devil]]", Matt Murdock goes to the art gallery owned by Wilson Fisk's girlfriend Vanessa Marianna to see how much she knows about Fisk's operations. The visit goes sideways when Fisk himself shows up, and there is a lengthy and tense conversation between the two archenemies. Since Matt is the opposing counsel on a pending lawsuit that Fisk is involved in (and one where Fisk has his own counsel), this sort of ''ex parte'' communication is completely inappropriate under [[https://decaturlegal.com/matt-murdock-ethical-attorney-netflix-daredevil/ section 4.2]] of the Model Rules of Professional Responsibility. When dealing with represented parties, Matt ethically can't reach out to Fisk directly; he'd have to go through Fisk's lawyers first. Though it's also clear that both of them know this, since Fisk says at one point, "[[LampshadeHanging Although we probably shouldn't be talking. I believe we're on opposite sides of a tenancy case.]]"
*** There's a proper aversion of this in "[[Recap/Daredevil2015S2E10TheDevilInTheBox The Devil in the Box]]", when Matt visits Fisk in prison, and he has to sign a restrictive non-disclosure waiver with Fisk's lawyer before he can sit down with Fisk.

** A justified example: in "[[Recap/Daredevil2015S1E5WorldOnFire World On Fire]]", Detectives Christian Blake and Carl Hoffman, two corrupt cops working for Fisk, shoot and kill a Russian thug in a precinct interrogation room for speaking Fisk's name. If it weren't for the fact that Fisk has the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau in his pocket, Blake and Hoffman would have been placed on modified assignment and administrative leave while an investigation was conducted into their actions. Because of Fisk's connections, Blake and Hoffman remain on active-duty, allowing them to participate with the other corrupt cops to kill the survivors of Fisk's bombings of the Russians' hideouts. It's lampshaded by Ben Urich when he sees Blake and Hoffman assuming command of the scene where Matt has holed up with Vladimir and a police officer who stumbled upon them, and comments "Detectives! I'd thought IAB would have you riding a desk after that thing with the Russians at the station", which Blake tries to pass off as them being needed due to manpower shortages ("You see what's going on here? No one's riding a desk tonight") but Ben clearly doesn't buy.

*** ...of course even if Foggy or Matt had objected for the purpose of appeal, it seems like the D.A. gets a free pass on bribing the medical examiner in the first place. The judge’s decision hurts Castle’s case and defense, and if anything it strengthens the D.A.’s case, because now the line of corruption from the D.A. they were trying to prove is basically nullified. Even taking away the fact that the medical examiner was bribed and then confessed, the fact that he was bribed to lie on the stand in the first place should still stand. There’s no way to connect Elektra’s actions to Matt and Foggy, since she didn’t tell Matt what she was going to do. If anything, it seems as if Matt and Foggy are being blamed for Elektra's actions because when they start the line of questioning about the corruption, the M.E. interrupts and basically says, “I know what you’re trying to get me to say because I was threatened”. This makes it seem like Matt or Foggy threatened him, yet there’s no connection to Elektra and the D.A. gets a pass on the original bribe.

*** Matt’s disastrous examination of Frank is worth pointing out. After a few questions, Matt asks the judge for permission to treat Frank as hostile, then launches into a long, rambling expository speech. In real life, permission to treat a witness as hostile means "treat the witness as though he or she had been called by the opposing party." This doesn’t change much. Mainly it means that Matt can now ask Frank leading questions (i.e. questions that suggest a particular answer is desired). It definitely does not mean Matt can ask “questions” that are long speeches better suited for a closing statement. The only thing that saves Matt is Reyes failing to object to just about every sentence he utters...
*** ...and Reyes' only objections are to Matt's cross-examination questions, citing them as “leading.” When the entire point of cross-examination is to ask leading questions to control the witness, which is allowed. It is equally wrong to object to cross-examination as argumentative, because cross-examination by its very nature is supposed to be argumentative to discredit the witness.

** Several episodes feature police cars with forward-facing blue and red lights. New York state law prohibits forward-facing blue lights on police vehicles.

** [[https://www.escapistmagazine.com/v2/2018/12/20/making-at-deal-with-daredevils-kingpin/ As this article points out]], the circumstances behind Wilson Fisk's release from prison in season 3 are semi-plausible but there are some liberties.

*** Another example is the decision to put Fisk up in a penthouse at the Presidential Hotel, following an attempted shanking on him. The Federal Bureau of Prisons has an established protocol for protecting prison informants and has special housing units available to keep them safe. Simply put, there should be no need and no reason to move Fisk to a hotel penthouse. A lot of this can be explained away as being because of Fisk's machinations (remember that Jasper Evans, the inmate who shanked Fisk, [[FalseFlagOperation had been paid by Fisk to do that]]; while the senior agent in charge of Fisk's protection detail [[DirtyCop has been threatened into working for him]]), but not all of it.

*** There was no evidence that Jeri Hogarth was no longer competent to practice law. She did not have any symptoms at the time her partners confronted her. Their plan was to dismiss her from the firm, which is discriminatory conduct based on someone’s disability. As such, the contractual requirement to disclose medical conditions required the disclosure of health information that would otherwise be protected, and used as a license to discriminate against those with medical conditions. [[LampshadeHanging It's no wonder Foggy called bullshit on the medical clause]], because this in his eyes would be no different from someone firing Matt from a law firm on the grounds that his blindness rendered him incompetent from practicing law.
*** The irony is, there ''are'' valid reasons to terminate Jeri Hogarth. She has committed jury tampering, which is grounds for disbarment; asking Jessica to rough up Wendy as inducement to sign a divorce agreement was a crime; having an affair with her secretary Pam, which while not a crime was an HR nightmare waiting to happen, and they had to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit from Pam; attempting to use Kilgrave to secure Wendy’s signature on divorce papers resulted in Wendy’s death; her illegal purchase of a handgun from Turk Barrett to later use in a homicide (making Jeri guilty of murder by proxy); and it's up for debate whether her entertaining with HookersAndBlow was illegal. Throw in the fact that Jeri’s practice includes criminal defense (cases like Jessica, her mother, Hope, etc, plus a lot of Foggy and Marci's cases), patent litigation, and estates (her work with Danny Rand), [[OmnidisciplinaryLawyer which are all highly specialized practice areas]]. This is like a doctor who is an orthodontist, vascular surgeon, and pediatrician. Sure, it is possible, just highly unlikely. Moreover, Jeri’s malpractice insurance has to be expensive.

*** First off, Costa says the people on the Raft “pulled jurisdiction” on Trish. They never make clear what that means. Yet the Raft, at least as established in ''Captain America: Civil War'', seemed to be created ad hoc for the Sokovia Accords. An international agreements like the Sokovia Accords do not override the U.S. Constitution, especially agreements that weren’t even ratified by the United States, so there's no explanation as to how they could possibly get jurisdiction over Trish when all her crimes are state crimes in New York State.
*** More problematic is the implication is that Trish wouldn’t even get a trial. Which is ''terrible''. Costa says that due process doesn’t apply to supers, which is a blatant violation of the Fifth Amendment (the right to a trial and due process), as well as the Eighth Amendment (which holds that the punishment must be proportional to the crime). It’s actually a double whammy there: first, it's hard to imagine how an underwater prison is a proportional punishment even to Trish’s (numerous) crimes; second, it’s explicitly stated that she’s being treated differently because she’s enhanced. This is a “status crime” (where you’re punished just for being who you are) which, surprise surprise, is unconstitutional in the United States.

*** First off, Costa says the people on the Raft “pulled jurisdiction” on Trish. They never make clear what that means. Yet the Raft, at least as established in ''Captain America: Civil War'', seemed to be created ad hoc for the Sokovia Accords. Which is weird because the Sokovia Accords are part of an international agreement and weren’t even ratified by the United States, so there's no explanation as to how they could possibly get jurisdiction over Trish when all her crimes are state crimes.

** Jessica Jones in season 3 appears to be susceptible to “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree.” This doesn’t extend to people who aren't in law enforcement or work for them, and definitely not “anonymous tips.” The pictures and the claimed connection would be more that enough for a warrant to search the killer’s apartment.

** Luke's backstory plays fast and loose with human research ethics (which have been codified into law since WWII). FDA regulations explicitly forbid the use of prisoners in research providing no direct benefit, except in very specific cases (most of which require that the research have no or minimal risk). They also forbid using reduced sentencing as an incentive toward consent--that's textbook coercion. That said, Seagate doesn't seem to be overly concerned with legality, so they may be fully aware that they are breaking the law. It could be argued that this illegality was also among the many things Foggy used to get Luke released from prison at the start of ''The Defenders''.

** A Russian says he's uncowed by police threats of sending him home to where he's wanted if he doesn't cooperate, as the US doesn't have any extradition treaty with Russia. However, the police fail to point out that extradition or not, they could still turn him over to Russia. The extradition treaty simply formalizes this, obligating one country to turn over wanted fugitives if the other goes through proper procedures.

** There's no way the state and federal authorities simply would ignore Gotham city officials allowing Penguin to "license" criminals. It would be a RICO indictment on all of them.

** "[[Recap/Daredevil2015S1E9SpeakOfTheDevil Speak of the Devil]]", Matt Murdock goes to the art gallery owned by Wilson Fisk's girlfriend Vanessa Marianna to see how much she knows about Fisk's operations. The visit goes sideways when Fisk himself shows up, and there is a lengthy and tense conversation between the two archenemies. Since Matt is the opposing counsel on a case that Fisk is involved in (a tenancy dispute in a building Fisk recently purchased from a slumlord), this interaction is completely inappropriate. Matt knows Fisk is represented by counsel, so ethically, he can't reach out to Fisk directly; he'd have to go through Fisk's lawyers first. This is lampshaded by Fisk, who comments, "Although we probably shouldn't be talking. I believe we're on opposite sides of a tenancy case." (There's a proper aversion of this in "[[Recap/Daredevil2015S2E10TheDevilInTheBox The Devil in the Box]]", when Matt visits Fisk in prison, and he has to sign a waiver with Fisk's lawyer before he can sit down with Fisk).

** The trial of Fisk's assassin John Healy seems to happen within a week of the original crime, given that Ben Urich's subway line piece, discussed early in the episode when Healy has just been arrested, is visible in the issue of the ''Bulletin'' on his desk when Karen visits his office at the close of the trial. Murder cases, if not plea bargained, are seldom heard in less than a year after the event. However, it is clear that Fisk had bribed and/or intimidated a number of the jurors, and it is also heavily implied that he may have also bribed the district attorney and prosecutors to fast-track Healy's trial. Why neither Matt or Foggy thought the unusually fast turnaround time was suspicious is another question.
** A justified example: in "[[Recap/Daredevil2015S1E5WorldOnFire World On Fire]]", Detectives Christian Blake and Carl Hoffman, two corrupt cops working for Fisk, shoot and kill a Russian thug in a precinct interrogation room for speaking Fisk's name. If it weren't for the fact that Fisk has the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau in his pocket, Blake and Hoffman would have been placed on modified assignment and administrative leave while an investigation was conducted into their actions. Because of Fisk's connections, Blake and Hoffman remain on active-duty, allowing them to participate with the other corrupt cops to kill the survivors of Fisk's bombings of the Russians' hideouts. It's lampshaded by Ben Urich when he sees Blake and Hoffman assuming command of the scene where Matt has holed up with Vladimir and a police officer who stumbled upon them, and comments "Detectives! I'd thought IAB would have you riding a desk after that thing with the Russians at the station", to which Blake says "You see what's going on here? No one's riding a desk tonight."
** On a sidenote, Blake and Hoffman giving orders at the standoff. NYPD Detectives are at the same level in the chain of command as regular Patrol Officers, and technically can't give orders to anyone but junior detectives. Only those in the supervisory ranks (Sergeant and upward) can give orders to other cops. Then again, they and many of the other cops in their precinct are on Fisk's payroll, so they probably know that they're breaking protocol.
** In season 1, Marci Stahl could have faced disbarment for handing over confidential work product. However, lawyers have an obligation not to participate in crimes and to tell the police if they have reason to believe their client will commit a crime. Landman & Zack has failed in both obligations (by not reporting that they are doing legal business for Wilson Fisk and not reporting his crimes to the cops), and it's her responsibility, legally, ethically, and professionally, to hand over all the information she can to the proper authorities. That she handed that information over to the lawyers on the opposing counsel (one of whom she used to have a romantic relationship with) is ''very'' questionable, but the New York Bar Association probably gave her a free pass given how extensive Fisk's corruption of the legal system went.

*** "Fast tracking" in most states means means getting it to trial in fewer than 12 months, not a week. It involves a shit ton of discovery (basically searching and sifting through all sorts of potential evidence, along with answering questions, producing documents, and depositions). That takes MONTHS if not over a year to go through.

*** There's a long, dramatic sequence where Frank is brought into the courtroom in chains and a prison jumpsuit, which would never be done in real life because it could bias the jury. The Supreme Court has ruled that the State isn't allowed to make a defendant wear that in court. A prisoner may choose to appear that way, if for some reason they want to bias the jury or just don't know what they're doing. But preventing a defendant from appearing in the dehumanizing garb of a prisoner is so crucial that ''public defenders'' often hold clothing drives to make sure their clients can dress up.

*** ...of course even if Foggy or Matt had objected for the purpose of appeal, it seems like the D.A. gets a free pass on bribing the medical examiner in the first place. The judge’s decision hurts Castle’s case and defense, and if anything it strengthens the D.A.’s case, because now the line of corruption from the D.A. they were trying to prove is basically nullified. Even taking away the fact that the medical examiner was bribed and then confessed, the fact that he was bribed to lie on the stand in the first place should still stand. There’s no way to connect Elektra’s actions to Matt and Foggy, since she didn’t tell Matt what she was going to do. If anything, it seems as if Matt and Foggy are being blamed for Elektra's actions because when they start the line of questioning about the corruption, the ME interrupts and basically says, “I know what you’re trying to get me to say because I was threatened”. This makes it seem like Matt or Foggy threatened him, yet there’s no connection to Elektra and the D.A. gets a pass on the original bribe.

*** Nelson & Murdock are literally given ''one week'' of prep time before the trial. In real life, following the arraignment (i.e. when Frank pleaded "not guilty") and assuming Frank waived grand jury proceedings, a complex trial like this would be preceded by several weeks or even months of depositions, motions, and hearings, mostly to establish what kind of evidence could be presented to the jury. This is especially in important in cases like this one that rely heavily on expert testimony. Corrupt or not, Reyes wouldn’t want to rush this, either. And even if they did, it would be extremely unusual (and likely appealable) for the judge not to grant the defense an extension of time before the trial started. [[note]] For a real life comparison, Aurora movie theater shooter James Holmes was arrested immediately after killing 12 people and injuring 58 more on July 20, 2012 and didn't even start discussing plea deals with the district attorney until March 27, 2013 -- more than eight months later, and his actual trial didn't start until two years later, and just the process of jury selection took three months.[[/note]] From a narrative standpoint, this shortened prep time is somewhat justified, due to the necessity to keep the trial on pace with the Elektra storyline. On the other hand, it does help explain in part why Nelson & Murdock’s defense of Frank Castle was essentially malpractice-level awful.

*** When Frank takes the stand, spectators in the gallery are holding signs decrying him as a vicious murderer who should be burned at the stake. Such signs should '''not even be allowed in the courthouse''', never mind an actual courtroom. At another point, a person in the gallery begins shouting that Castle killed his father. The judge orders the person removed, but Nelson & Murdock should have seized the opportunity to request a declaration of a mistrial. Even if they didn’t get it, it would be yet another issue they could appeal if the trial went badly (which it does).

*** A key part of Nelson & Murdock’s defense strategy was convincing Dr. Gregory Tepper, the medical examiner, to come clean about being asked to falsify the records of the deaths of Frank's family. Initially hesitant, the medical examiner decides to change his story on the stand and tell the truth. The judge clears the courtroom (although in reality she almost certainly wouldn’t just because a witness was testifying unexpectedly), and the medical examiner spills the beans and explains that he was forced to confess because Elektra had threatened him the night before. The judge strikes Tepper’s testimony…and Matt and Foggy do nothing but have a fight in the courthouse bathroom, rather than appeal the judge's motion. This is a concept in civil and criminal procedure known as “preserving an issue for appeal.”[[note]]Basically, if the judge makes an error during the trial, if one side doesn’t object during the trial, then it’s much harder or even impossible to appeal the error to a higher court later.[[/note]] Doing nothing, not even giving a verbal objection, about an issue this important, which could have affected the outcome of the trial, is a colossal screwup.

*** Another example is the decision to put Fisk up in a penthouse at the Presidential Hotel, following two attempts on his life (one of which was a FalseFlagOperation). The Federal Bureau of Prisons has an established protocol for protecting prison informants and has special housing units available to keep them safe. Simply put, there should be no need and no reason to move Fisk to a hotel penthouse. A lot of this can be explained away as being because of Fisk's machinations (since [[FalseFlagOperation Fisk had paid Jasper Evans to shank him]], and the agent in charge of Fisk's protection detail [[DirtyCop is actively working for him]]), but not all of it.

* ''Series/HellOnWheels'': Governor Campbell claims he can't pardon Ruth if she won't accept it. While it's certainly unusual that a prisoner wouldn't want a pardon, doing so is the governor's discretion, and doesn't require anyone else's consent.

* ''Series/BabylonBerlin'': A judge is at one point addressed as "Euer Ehren", which is largely an an anglicism deriving from "Your Honor". The proper way to address a judge in German is "Herr Vorsitzender" ("Mr. President" or "Mr. Chairman").

* ''Series/{{ER}}''. February 2000, Carter and Lucy are stabbed by a schizophrenic patient. 2 years later, the man is brought into the hospital with a head injury, with a few throwaway lines from him and his wife indicating he's "doing fine, taking his medication", and out of prison/the mental hospital. There is '''''no way''''' that someone who murdered someone and almost killed someone else would be released from a mental hospital in as little as 2 years--as has been repeatedly stated regarding similar situations on other TV shows, they'd be institutionalized for as long as a prison sentence, if not longer (which assumes that the {{insanity defense}} would even work-most don't).[[note]]Being mentally ill isn't the same thing as legally insane. Depending on the jurisdiction and the defendant's state of mind, they're often still convicted, (they'd receive treatment in prison or an institution for criminally insane patients).[[/note]]

* ''Series/{{ER}}''. February 2000, Carter and Lucy are stabbed by a schizophrenic patient. 2 years later, the man is brought into the hospital with a head injury, with a few throwaway lines from him and his wife indicating he's "doing fine, taking his medication", and out of prison/the mental hospital. There is '''''no way''''' that someone who murdered someone and almost killed someone else would be released from a mental hospital in as little as 2 years--as has been repeatedly stated regarding similar situations on other TV shows, they'd be institutionalized for as long as a prison sentence, if not longer.

** The ''People of the State of New York v. Frank Castle'' [[http://lawandthemultiverse.com/2016/06/14/daredevil-season-2-part-1/#more-2805 is an]] [[http://lawandthemultiverse.com/2016/07/10/daredevil-season-2-part-2-the-trial/ exercise in this trope]]:

** The series finale; Good Samaritan laws do not work that way for a number of reasons:

* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': Marshall had superhunk Brad (played by Joe Manganiello) as his opposing counsel in a civil suit. In the first place, Brad pretended to be interviewing for a job at Marshall's firm so he could steal their strategy for the case, which could have gotten him disbarred, and he even admitted it to Marshall after the fact. Then, somehow, the jury was made up entirely of women who were biased in Brad's favor because they wanted to fuck him. This is something that, for obvious reasons, would not be allowed to happen during the jury selection process. Finally, the judge, who is very obviously attracted to Brad, shows blatant favoritism throughout the process, and when Marshall manages to win, awards a tiny judgment. With the official record and a courtroom full of witnesses, this judge's career ought to have been blown up. The ''only'' possible explanation? Marshall is an UnreliableNarrator and exaggerated the story.

* ''Series/TwoBrokeGirls'': In "And The High Holiday" Max mentions a bunch of states that have legalized marijuana with only Colorado and Washington recently allowing recreational pot use. The rest are either decriminalized or allow medical marijuana or both or neither. The big baggie of pot that Max has is more than enough to get arrested, even in states where it's decriminalized. They only allow possession under a certain amount to not be criminalized and instead subject to fines.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone2002'': One standard use of this trope with "[[FailedExecutionNoSentence if people sentenced to death cannot be executed for reasons beyond our control]], ''even after trying several times'', they are free" appears in "The Executions Of Grady Finch", among some other examples.

*** Once Fisk gets his conviction overturned, the main characters suddenly act like they must get him on new charges. Unless the judges ruled that there was insufficient evidence against him for any reasonable jury to convict him though (quite unlikely), this would result in Fisk being granted a retrial on the same RICO charges.[[note]]We know for a certainty that Fisk was convicted of the murders of Detective Blake and the other cops killed on the night of the bombings, since the protesters at the Presidential Hotel's courtyard are holding signs denouncing Fisk as a cop killer. Beyond that, we can only speculate[[/note]] Not to mention, it's totally possible (and even pointed out by Foggy) that Fisk could be tried on state charges in New York without regard to the outcome of his federal case. It's explained that the reason it takes so long for anyone to go this route is because District Attorney Blake Tower is reluctant to prosecute Fisk because he doesn't want to jeopardize his reelection campaign / get intimidated by Fisk, though curiously no one considers taking up with the New York State's Attorney.
*** Marci convinces Foggy that he should run against Blake Tower as a write-in District Attorney candidate to bring Tower's inactivity in prosecuting Fisk to public light. Yet, while campaigning, Foggy still has enough time to investigate Fisk and be lawyer for Karen and for Matt at times. In real life, campaigning is a 24/7 job. Foggy wouldn’t have had time for anything else. In addition, while Foggy's intention was "make myself so public that I'm untouchable to Fisk," in real life, it would have exposed him way too much. It would have been very easy for Fisk to get to him if his profile were to reach that level. On top of that, there are so many other details of the story arc that are just incompatible with campaigning. For instance, Marci and Foggy probably would have had to get married ''immediately'' as soon as Foggy threw his hat in the ring. Also, if Foggy won, Marci would have no choice but to quit her job at Jeri Hogarth & Associates to avoid any potential conflicts of interest.

*** Ultimately, Season 3 takes this case of Hollywood Law and ends up [[RealityEnsues applying reality to it]], when [[spoiler:Jimmy tips off the insurance company about Chuck's mental illness. This causes them to raise malpractice premiums on ''all'' of HHM's practicing attorneys[[note]]There's even an argument to be made that the insurance company would have inevitably found out about the illness on their own, just much later, and Jimmy just made the inevitable happen sooner[[/note]]. Howard's patience with Chuck was already growing thin, and the insurance premiums going up because of Chuck's illness proves to be the straw that breaks the camel's back between them.]]