Hostname: page-component-669899f699-rg895 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-30T00:02:46.985Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“Tort Tales” and TV Judges: Amplifying, Modifying, or Countering the Antitort Narrative?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Joshua C. Wilson  and
Erin Ackerman
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article joins the debate about the popular pervasiveness of antitort and antilitigation attitudes by examining whether, and to what extent, antitort or antilitigation sentiment is present in the narratives about law offered by reality-based television judge shows. Given the persistent debate about tort reform and scholars' recognition of the role played in this debate by simplified narratives about the legal system, we analyze whether reality-based TV judge shows as a genre contribute to the creation and dissemination antitort and antilitigation sentiment. Earlier studies led us to hypothesize that TV judge shows would largely support the antitort and antilitigation narratives. After coding over 55 hours of such shows, however, we conclude that they do not adopt this narrative. Rather, these shows present a view of the civil law system that largely treats plaintiffs' claims as legitimate and showcases the majority of defendants as wrongdoers. In spite of this, we argue that the particular dramatic qualities of TV judge shows limit their potential to serve as a strong counternarrative to antitort and antilitigation stories.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , March 2012 , pp. 105 - 135
Copyright
© 2012 Law and Society Association.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

The authors would like to thank Robert Kagan, Joel Grossman, Doris Marie Provine, Brian K. Arbour, Maxwell Mak, and Ellen Keith for their assistance, guidance, and comments on the various stages of this project. We are also grateful for the financial assistance of the PSC-CUNY Research Award and the John Jay College Research Assistance Program.

References

Aks, Judith, Haltom, William & McCann, Michael (1997) “Symbolic Stella: On Media Coverage of Personal Injury Litigation and the Production of Legal Knowledge,” Summer Law, Courts, and Judicial Process Newsletter 5–7.Google Scholar
Bergman, Paul, & Asimow, Michael (2006) Reel Justice: The Courtroom Goes to the Movies. Kansas City, MO: Andrews McNeel Publishing.Google Scholar
Berman, Marc (2007) “Syndication Nation,” June 11 MediaWeek 34.Google Scholar
Epstein, Michael M. (2001) “Judging Judy, Mablean, and Mills: How Courtroom Programs Use Law to Parade Private Lives to Mass Audiences,” 8 UCLA Entertainment Law Rev. 129–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, Lawrence M. (1987) “Civil Wrongs: Personal Injury Law in the Late 19th Century,” 12 Law & Social Inquiry 351–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haltom, William, & McCann, Michael W. (2004) Distorting the Law: Politics, Media, and the Litigation Crisis. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huff, Ricahrd (2008) “Many Judge, but Judy Rules,” May 7 New York Daily News 45.Google Scholar
Kagan, Robert A. (2006) “How Much Do Conservative Tort Tales Matter?,” 31 Law & Social Inquiry 711–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohm, Steven A. (2006) “The People's Law vs. Judge Judy Justice: Two Models of Law in American Reality Based Courtroom TV,” 40 Law & Society Rev. 693–727.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krukowski, Andrew (2009) “Brown Holds Court in a Packed Field,” January 12. Television Week 14–5.Google Scholar
Levin, Gary (2011) “Who Will Fill the Void Left by Oprah? With Departures and Arrivals, Face of Daytime TV Is Changing,” May 25 USA Today 1D.Google Scholar
McCann, Michael, & Haltom, William (2005) “ATLA Shrugged: Why Personal Injury Lawyers Are Not Public Defenders of Their Own Causes,” in Sarat, A., & Scheingold, S., eds., The Worlds Cause Lawyers Make. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Podlas, Kimberlianne (2002) “Blame Judge Judy: The Effects of Syndicated Television Courtrooms on Jurors,” 25 American J. of Trial Advocacy 557–86.Google Scholar
Reed, Douglas S. (2006) “A New Constitutional Regime: The Juridico-Entertainment Complex,” in Sherwin, Richard K., ed., Popular Culture and Law. Burlington, VT: Aldershot.Google Scholar
Stanley, Alessandra (2007) “Gavel to Gavel (to Gavel to Gavel) Coverage,” The New York Times. July 8. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/arts/television/08stan.html (accessed 20 Mar 2010).Google Scholar
Television Bureau of Advertising (2011) Top 50 Syndicated Programs.” Available at: http://www.tvb.org/measurement/4751 (accessed 14 Jun 2011).Google Scholar
Wilson, Michael. (2009) “Let's Take It Outside,” November 22 The New York Times MB1.Google Scholar