History WebVideo / LegalEagle

** Played straight in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-QcbOphxYs one video]] on the Alex Jones trial that had a real-life "Perry Mason moment" (as Jones himself dubbed it)[[note]]To briefly summarize, during the discovery process, Jones' lawyer accidentally sent the plaintiff's attorney the ''entire'' digital log from Jones' phone rather than just the specific pieces of information that were requested. The lawyer then didn't do any of the things that would be required to revoke the information after being alerted of the mistake, meaning that all the information, particularly all of his text messages, became fair game. With this, they were able to call out Jones' attempts to blatantly lie on the stand, to which Jones, while stumbling through an attempted explanation, said "this is your Perry Mason moment"[[/note]].

** Played straight in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-QcbOphxYs one video]] on the Alex Jones trial that had a real-life "Perry Mason moment" (as Jones himself dubbed it)[[note]]To briefly summarize, during the discovery process, Jones' lawyer accidentally sent the plaintiff's attorney the ''entire'' digital log from Jones' phone rather than just the specific pieces of information that were requested. The lawyer then didn't do any of the things that would be required to revoke the information after being alerted of the mistake, meaning the plaintiffs had Jones' entire phone, particularly all of his text messages. With this, they were able to call out Jones' attempts to blatantly lie on the stand, to which Jones, while stumbling through an attempted explanation, said "this is your Perry Mason moment"[[/note]].

* ThePerryMasonMethod: {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in many of Devin's videos reacting to media, where he points out that this sort of thing just doesn't happen in real life. On the flip side, he compliments media like ''Film/MyCousinVinny'' that shows the case being built in a more methodical way for accurately showing how trial lawyers build a case rather than relying on this unrealistic trope.

** Played straight in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-QcbOphxYs one video]] on the Alex Jones trial that had a real-life "Perry Mason moment" (as Jones himself dubbed it)[[note]]To briefly summarize, during the Discovery process, Jones' lawyer accidentally sent the plaintiffs attorney Jones' ''entire'' phone rather than just the specific pieces of information that were requested. The lawyer then made no attempt to revoke that when he was confronted with the mistake, meaning the plaintiffs had Jones' entire phone, particularly all of his text messages. With this, they were able to call out Jones' attempts to blatantly lie on the stand, to which Jones, while stumbling through an attempted explanation, said "this is your Perry Mason moment"[[/note]].

* OmnidisciplinaryLawyer: Devin [[SubvertedTrope is not one]]; he's a civil law attorney (with some experience/knowledge of criminal law). To that point, when reviewing the realism of ''Film/TopGun'' and ''Film/AFewGoodMen'', Devin brought in a former JAG named Spencer who was more of an expert in military law for the sake of more accuracy.

** Played straight in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-QcbOphxYs one video]] on the Alex Jones trial that had a real-life "Perry Mason moment" (as Jones himself dubbed it).

** In his videos on the 2023 saga chronicling Trump's various criminal indictments, one of the recurring figures is named Kenneth Chesebro; any time all of the various people involved in the proceeds are shown, Chesebro's head is replaced by a cartoon block of cheese. Chesebro's face was finally shown for the first time in Devin's Tier List of Trump's lawyers.

** Inverted in another video where he discusses "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_jaU5V9FUg Lawsuits That Actually Weren't Ridiculous]]" -- lawsuits that are often cited as "frivolous" (it doesn't help matters that the media selectively presented just the parts that made the plaintiff look bad), but actually had a solid legal basis, including the famous "[=McDonald=]'s hot coffee case".

** Also PlayedForLaughs in his review of a WebVideo/DharMann video "Prosecutor Sends Innocent Black Man to Jail". He is so flabbergasted with the lack of jury, the judge straight up asking the defense whether they have evidence, the video being unclear on what part of the trial is happening, the defense lawyer being unable to find evidence for the defendant's alibi despite him being at a ball game in another state ON THE OTHER END OF THE COUNTRY at the time of the crime, and then the judge simply deciding that was enough for him and passing a judgement of "guilty" (and that's just a few of the legal inaccuracies) that a graphic appears saying "Did you know? Trials have a jury and evidence."

** For the legal realism of ''Tiger King'', he initially gives it an F due to how unrealistic it is... before remembering [[RealityIsUnrealistic it is a documentary]], at which point [[SarcasmFailure he gives up]].

** In one of his TrueCrime episodes, Devin covers the story of Leopold and Loeb, a pair of genius sociopaths who murdered a teenage boy in an attempt to commit the "perfect crime". After planning the murder for seven months, they proceeded to commit several textbook mistakes that make it extremely easy to find them. Such clues include leaving their unique eyeglasses by the body, chucking the weapon out the car window in front of a witness, cleaning the evidence at one of their houses with no cover story, having no solid alibi beyond phone calls, blatantly attempting to frame a classmate when the police came knocking, and even pulling a SarcasticConfession to the detectives. After seven months of planning the crime, the killers were arrested within two weeks.
** In his video on the lawsuit against the Trump organization, Devin goes into detail about all the incredible mistakes Trump himself and his lawyers made throughout the process, including forfeiting a jury trial by forgetting to check a box, trying to repeat an argument that had already been shot down in court and on appeal (thus getting sanctions), citing a disclaimer in an attempt to blame the accountants when the disclaimer put the blame on Trump personally, trying to cite the Trump University fraud case in their favor even though Trump lost that case too, using an expert witness who overvalued Mar-a-Lago even more than Trump did with no facts to back up his assertions, and then continuing all of the illegal behavior after an injunction and independent monitor were both put in place. Devin even notes that while some of the frauds were done through creative accounting trickery, some were just straight-up easy-to-prove lies. The result was the judge dissolving the Trump Organization, which Devin and other lawyers describe as the "Corporate Death Penalty".

* JackassGenie: One of the memes he reviewed is a comic from ''eat the rich comic'', in which the Genie grants a person's first wish for a world without lawyers, but then immediately denies him more wishes despite originally promising three wishes, and challenges him to sue him.

** One of Devin's "Reacting to Legal Memes" videos has a brief appearance by Dr. Rohin Francis of the channel "[=MedLife=] Crisis" to provide some background on a meme that involves mention of an autopsy. (Devin would later do a full-on collaboration with Dr. Francis for a video about the UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic.)

** Also PlayedForLaughs in his review of a WebVideo/DharMann video "Prosecutor Sends Innocent Black Man to Jail". He is so flabbergasted with the lack of jury, the judge straight up asking the defense whether they have evidence, the video being unclear on what part of the trial is happening, and the defense lawyer being unable to find evidence for the defendant's alibi despite him being at a ball game at another state at the time of the crime (and that's just a few of the legal inaccuracies) that a graphic appears saying "Did you know? Trials have a jury and evidence."

* ThePerryMasonMethod: {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in many of Devin's videos reacting to media, where he points out that this sort of thing just doesn't happen in real life. On the flip side, he compliments media like ''Film/MyCousinVinny'', where the courtroom scenes are more true to life, for accurately showing how trial lawyers build a case (getting individual pieces from each witness and then tying them together in closing to form a cohesive story) rather than relying on this unrealistic trope.

* ThePerryMasonMethod: {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in many of Devin's videos reacting to media, where he points out that this sort of thing just doesn't happen in real life. On the flip side, he compliments the likes of ''Film/MyCousinVinny'' for showing how witness examination is actually used (getting individual pieces from each witness and then tying them together in closing to form a cohesive story).

* InUniverseFactoidFailure: In his video on ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', Devin argues that Batman would be held liable for assault against Joker's thugs at Harvey's fundraiser because, since he instigates the brawl, he has no self-defense claim. As multiple commenters pointed out, the fight takes place in Bruce's own penthouse - it's why Batman was there in the first place - so costume or not, Bruce is defending his property, which opens him up to an easy self-defense claim.

* TheCameo: Not so much in his own videos, but chances are if ''someone else'' making a video needs an actual lawyer to provide legal exposition (or even just for a joke involving a lawyer), Devin's the guy who shows up.

* ShownTheirWork: Devin always gives a lot of praise to works that get the details of a legal case right. Additionally, he also praises works where the scriptwriters do a good job of showing a lawyer as ''in''competent, noting that the screenwriters would still have to have a solid understanding of the legal profession in order to effectively create a character who's really bad at it. He particularly praises ''Film/MyCousinVinny'' for both aspects of this and providing good examples of a real-life trial and the behavior required, even if a lot of what Vinny does qualifies in a "what not to do" way.

* EpicFail: In one of his TrueCrime episodes, Devin covers the story of Leopold and Loeb, a pair of genius sociopaths who murdered a teenage boy in an attempt to commit the "perfect crime". After planning the murder for seven months, they proceeded to commit several textbook mistakes that make it extremely easy to find them. Such clues include leaving their unique eyeglasses by the body, chucking the weapon out the car window in front of a witness, cleaning the evidence at one of their houses with no cover story, having no solid alibi beyond phone calls, blatantly attempting to frame a classmate when the police came knocking, and even pulling a SarcasticConfession to the detectives. After seven months of planning the crime, the killers were arrested within two weeks.

** In his videos on the 2023 saga chronicling Trump's various criminal indictments, one of the recurring figures is named Kenneth Chesebro; any time all of the various people involved in the proceeds are shown, Chesebro's head is replaced by a cartoon block of cheese.

* ArtificialStupidity: A pair of New York lawyers [[https://youtu.be/oqSYljRYDEM fell foul of this]] when they used [=ChatGPT=] for prep work and failed to make sure the cases the AI was citing were all real and not what AI researchers call [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucination_(artificial_intelligence) hallucinations]], resulting in them being reamed by a federal judge for citing fictitious cases in their arguments.

* ArtisticLicenseLaw:
** In his review of the first episode of ''Anime/{{Ace Attorney|2016}}'', he calls out what feels like several egregious fallacies, such as the lack of a jury and the disregard for the defendant's 5th amendment rights, as well as confusion over where the idea of lawyers getting lawyer badges came from. As many commenters pointed out, the anime is based off the ''Japanese'' legal system, not the American system that DJ was trying to compare it to.

* HollywoodLaw: It's the entire theme of his channel. His ''X Gets Lawyered'' videos go into detail about [[DiscussedTrope what movies and TV shows get right and wrong about laws and legal procedures]].

** In his review of the first episode of [[Anime/AceAttorney2016 Ace Attorney]], he calls out what feels like several egregious fallacies, such as the lack of a jury and the disregard for the defendant's 5th amendment rights, as well as confusion over where the idea of lawyers getting lawyer badges came from. As many commenters pointed out, the anime is based off the ''Japanese'' legal system, not the American system that DJ was trying to compare it to.

** Devin notes how darkly ironic it is that Rudy Giuliani, who pioneered the use of RICO charges to go after the mob when he was Mayor of New York, was charged with violating Georgia's RICO statute in 2023.

* {{Irony}}: DJ critiques the ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' episode "[=McPoyle=] vs. Ponderosa: The Trial of the Century" and regards its CourtroomAntics as highly unrealistic and exaggerated for comedic purposes. When he reviews "The Cereal Defense", he is shocked that the mock trial had more realistic conduct than the episode where it's an actual trial.

* RunningGag: DJ's insistence that the bailiff will tackle anyone who approaches the jury. It's gotten to the point where viewers assume it's based on a NoodleIncident that DJ witnessed or was directly involved in.

** Also apparent in his reaction to the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z56j06plUgs June 2020 incident at Lafayette Square]], in which Devin is visibly struggling to hold back tears throughout the video.

* {{Catchphrase}}:
** "It's time to think like a lawyer." - said at the beginning of every video after the greeting. Occasionally, "lawyer" will be replaced by whatever's topical.
** Whenever a character in a fictional court scene walks where they shouldn't, he warns you that if you try that in real life, "the bailiff will tackle you."

* StupidEvil: Pointed out for the villain of a WebVideo/DharMann video, specifically a [[AmoralAttorney corrupt prosecuting attorney]] who seeks to send an innocent man to jail by suppressing evidence that would acquit him, because he thinks it'll ensure a promotion. Not only is that a career-ending Brady Violation that would be ridiculously easy to expose (which ends up happening), the supposed reward for this massive and unprovoked risk is also nonexistent. He's getting some no-name sent to state prison for Assault With A Deadly Weapon, one of the most routine charges imaginable and not something his superiors are likely to take notice of at all, much less think is so impressive that they'd have to fast track him to DA.

-->'''Eagle''': You know what that means. It finally happened! ''[puts on sunglasses]]'' We're talking TREE LAW, BABY! ''[starts clapping, CG confetti pops in high-pitched voice]] Eeeeee, it finally happened, yaaaaay!

* {{Squee}}: While it was a nightmare to research and analyze, DJ has nothing but love and praise for the ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' episode "Chicanery" for its signature battery scene; even as he goes in depths as to the legal issues at work and complains about how much research it took, he's constantly praising the episode for its completely unique situation.