When TV Gets Lawyers Wrong

Today over at Findlaw, Julie Hilden writes about how television gets the law wrong. Most things, she concedes, fall away under the mantle of "dramatic license." But she goes on to note several things that cop/law TV shows get seriously wrong. Sort of. For instance, she argues that the shows make it look like people confess most of the time and that this is not the case. I respectfully disagree. A staggering number of people I see during an initial appearance (the first presentment before a judge after being arrested), if arrested based on a criminal complaint, have confessed to something. Or at least it says so in the complaint. I'm not sure of the exact numbers, but the fact is that lots of people talk against their own interest (or agree to incriminating searches), so I'm not sure TV gets that all that wrong. As for "scoffing at those who lawyer up," I think the general public feels that way, too. How many people think Scott Peterson is guilty only because he didn't testify during his trial?