7 Famous Movie Courtroom Scenes (And How They Are Wrong In Real Life)

I purposefully chose to end with this film. This is the movie that made me want to go to law school, and it's surprising true to reality in most regards.

Unfortunately, the biggest unrealistic scene in the movie would be the climax of the film itself.

Marisa Tomei is great as Mona Lisa Vito (in fact, she won an Academy Award for the role). However, her character would just not be considered an "expert" for trial purposes. She has worked on cars her entire life, sure, but that is not the standard for determining a trial expert. She has produced no peer-reviewed journals, has never testified before as an expert, did not use any objective scientific process that could be replicated, and has no specialized training in accident reconstruction.

Since Mona Lisa Vito would not be qualified as an expert, she would have been unable to testify at trial. There are only two types of people allowed to take the stand: lay witnesses and expert witnesses. A lay witness (whether an eye-witness or character-witness) saw something or someone first hand. An expert, saw things after the fact, and used his or her expert opinion to make conclusions about what he or she did not actually see occur. Ms. Vito would not fall under either of these categories, and therefore wouldn't be allowed to testify at court.