9. Miracle On 34th Street - Making A Mockery Of A Court Room Is A Good Idea
To be clear, I am not a lawyer. I have no professional training in the field, nor should anything I say be construed as legal advice. What Culture and its affiliates disavow any responsibility for any and all repercussions that may arise from any person or persons taking anything Mr. Ravenscraft says to heart. That being said, this entire court room is plagued with shenanigans of the highest order. For starters, Kris Kringle has a horrible lawyer. As the defendant, Mr. Claus has the inalienable 5th Amendment right to refrain from providing self-incriminating testimony, and yet he is called to the stand by the opposing counsel and it quickly goes downhill from there. Had Santa simply refused to testify, the state would've been forced to call their own psychiatrists as witnesses to make the case that St. Nick is off his rocker, at which point the defendant could call his own, and it would be a much more subjective case, giving the judge more freedom to dismiss. In general, it was a truly horrible decision on the part of the "world's greatest lawyer." However, the biggest problem of all came during the climactic scene where the defense brings in bags and bags of letters and dumps them on the judge's desk, proving that the US Post Office thinks the man in the court room is Santa, and so we should too. Of course, this
completely disregards the process of discovery. Contrary to popular belief, a court room is not the place where arguments are first revealed to opposing lawyers, but to a judge or jury, depending on the type of trial. Submitting new evidence this late in the game, particularly by literally dumping it all over the judge's desk, would be a huge breach of protocol and likely to piss off any presiding judge. Santa can get away with it, because he's so darn jolly and lovable, but I might recommend against trying this legal maneuver on your own.