COURT DRAMAS - LAW and LAWYER movies

The jury in a New York City murder trial is frustrated by a single member whose skeptical caution forces them to more carefully consider the evidence before jumping to a hasty verdict.

Twelve men must decide the fate of one when one juror objects to the jury's decision.

The story of 7 people on trial stemming from various charges surrounding the uprising at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.

In order to be reinstated to the bar and recover custody of her daughter, a hotshot lawyer, now in recovery and on probation, must take on the appeal of a woman wrongfully convicted of murder.

Defence lawyer Mick Haller lands a case defending a wealthy realtor's son who is accused of raping a prostitute. Believing his client to be innocent, Haller soon finds evidence that proves otherwise.

A military lawyer intends to prove that two US Marines charged with murdering a fellow Marine were only following their base commander's orders.

Fictionalized depiction of the 1947 Judges' Trial, the third of 12 trials of Nazi war criminals conducted by the American occupying forces in Nuremberg, Germany, in which former judges of Nazi Germany were tried for their actions.

A mother whose child was killed in a dingo attack in the Australian Outback fights to prove her innocence when she is accused of murder.

An upstate Michigan lawyer defends a soldier who claims he killed an innkeeper due to temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. What is the truth and will he win his case?

Two ex-cons murder a family in a robbery attempt, before going on the run from the authorities. The police try to piece together the details of the murder in an attempt to track down the killers.

A veteran British barrister must defend his client in a murder trial that has surprise after surprise.

After his wife leaves him, a work-obsessed Manhattan advertising executive is forced to learn long-neglected parenting skills, but a heated custody battle over the couple's young son deepens the wounds left by the separation.

An outcast, alcoholic Boston lawyer sees the chance to salvage his career and self-respect by taking a medical malpractice case to trial rather than settling.

A widowed lawyer in Depression-era Alabama defends a black man against a false rape charge while teaching his young children about the sad reality of prejudice.

A lawyer defends her father accused of war crimes, but there is more to the case than she suspects.

A woman's life falls apart after she's blamed for an accident on her property.

A white middle class South African suburbanite with no interest in politics agrees to help his black gardener find his jailed son. His investigation opens his eyes to the horrors committed by the secret police and turns him into a target.

An eager and idealistic young attorney defends an Alcatraz prisoner accused of murdering a fellow inmate. The extenuating circumstances: his client had just spent over three years in solitary confinement.

A cynical former civil liberties attorney now reduced to "specializing" in defending drug dealers becomes transformed by an eight-year-old murder case.

Wealthy Sunny von Bülow lies brain-dead, husband Claus guilty of attempted murder; but he says he's innocent and hires Alan Dershowitz for his appeal.

As a lawyer investigates the murder of a colleague, he finds himself more connected to the crime than anyone else.

Lawyers and the media argue the alleged child abuse at the McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, California.

After a lukewarm marriage of over twenty years, a woman appeals to her husband's compassion to obtain the desirable divorce document in front of a court, which proves to be more challenging than she would expect.

A wealthy old alchemist and inventor has just perfected a motion picture camera with which he hopes to revolutionize the art of animated photography, and our story opens with the old man in his library studying out the plans of his invention. A telegram calls him hurriedly away. He replaces the papers in his safe, but, in his haste, neglects to lock it, which oversight is pardonable, as his wife and daughter are in the room at the time. The daughter's hand is sought in marriage by a worthy young man, whose attentions are looked upon with favor by herself and her parents. But he has a rival in the person of a contemptible villain, whose motives are purely mercenary, reasoning that this new invention will greatly enhance the father's already ample wealth. He has met with little or no encouragement from the girl, but is determined to have her at any hazard, so calling at the house shortly after the old man departs, is ushered into the library by the maid, who goes to inform her mistress of his arrival. While left alone in the room he espies the door of the safe ajar. Making sure that he will suffer no interruption, he goes through the safe and secures the coveted plans, secreting them in his pocket just as the girl enters. He renews his protestations, of love, but is again repulsed, and when he becomes insultingly persistent, receives a blow in the face and is ordered from the house by the incensed girl. He goes, but swears vengeance. The father now returns and goes to his laboratory to make a final test of his invention. Threading the camera with photographic film, he starts the motor, when the villain enters to lay his proposal for the girl's hand before him. It is, of course, rejected, and the villain threatens the old man, flaunting before his very face the cherished designs, of his invention. The old man, white with rage, leaps at the throat of the villain, forgetting about the camera, which is whirling through its mechanism yard after yard of negative film. During this scene the young girl is in the library relating to her fiancé her experience with the odious suitor, and upon leaving he is assured that there is nothing to fear in that direction. She then goes to the laboratory, and the horrible sight that greets her freezes the blood in her veins, for there upon the floor lays her dear old father cold in death. Bending over his lifeless body she picks up a dagger papercutter which the murderer, whoever he be, had taken from her father's desk. There she kneels beside the prostrate form transfixed with horror, with this poniard tightly clutched in her nerveless hand, when the villain enters with, others and boldly accuses her of parricide. Appearances are unfortunately against her, so she is led away to prison. Circumstantial evidence is so strong that the world believes her guilty and all desert her except her poor old mother and her faithful lover, who visits and consoles her in her prison cell, vowing he will leave no stone unturned to run to earth the real culprit. Visiting the laboratory, the young man makes a startling discovery. While rummaging through the old alchemist's effects, his attention is drawn towards the new camera and although having but a vague knowledge of the art of animated photography, he has, through his association with the old inventor, a limited idea of its importance, and some little talent in chemistry, so he examines the camera and finds that one of the film boxes contains film. This he take into the "dark room" and develops a short strip sufficiently to see a faint outline of a scene. "My God! Just as I thought!" He hurries with the box of film to the old mans assistant, who develops it and prints a positive. Armed with this convincing evidence, he rushes into the courtroom, and with the permission of the presiding judge, sets up a moving picture machine and projects the result of his discovery upon the wall. The scene here pictured completely exonerates the young girl by showing the actual murder of the old man by the villain, who, during this exposition tries to bolt, but his escape is cut off, and he is taken into custody for the- heinous crime he committed. -- The Moving Picture World, January 18, 1908

Small Axe is based on the real-life experiences of London's West Indian community between 1969 and 1982.