One of the joys of blogging is that from time to time somebody else comes up with the idea for your post. And it is now time for Bob Hruzek’s What I Learned from ….monthly writing project. This month the theme is - THE LAW.

I thought and thought, I started writing and then I stopped. I have really taxed my brain on this one. I am a law abiding citizen though I have earned a couple of parking tickets in my time - one of which I won on appeal but I had to promise never to let the payment ticked slip onto the floor of the car having come unstuck from my windscreen again.

And then it came to me. My knowledge of the law comes from 2 main sources.

Firstly from working in a law firm as a tax adviser for 9 years. I really did think about writing about my experiences in that area and then realised that that could lead to my regular readers deserting me in droves. Have you any idea how much of a conversation stopper it is to tell people you have just met that you work in tax?

So here I am writing about the other source of my knowledge about the law - the Law and Order TV shows. Law and Order Special Victims is my favourite but the others are brilliant too.

There is of course a fatal flaw in gaining my knowledge this way. I live in the UK…but hey. That’s a small detail.

So what have I learned from Law and Order. Well here goes

  1. When two attractive ladies are jogging in the street chatting about this and that it is only a matter of time til they come across a body. And - they may look innocent but there is a more than fair chance that one of them is connected somehow.
  2. If there is a fun party going on you can be sure that by the morning somebody will have come to harm ( this applies to CSI too - especially in Miami.  Did you know that there is  a TV show where people use what they learned by watching CSI in a real live case)??
  3. The investigating cops will be rough and ready - salt of the earth types - with a wry sense of humour and a social conscience. This makes me feel really safe.
  4. The lawyers - even the ones that are not classically handsome or beautiful - will be very attractive. That is of course unless they are actually a baddy in disguise - which happens.
  5. The cops and the lawyers will rarely conduct a conversation standing or sitting still - you have to walk and talk at the same time.
  6. In court the good lawyers will have a time when they think all is lost - but they will be able to pull something out of the bag at the last minute. I will be exhausted by this time.
  7. It is usually the comment that the attorney makes that is objected to and has to be withdrawn that turns the case for the lawyers for the baddy ( which I am sure is the point of doing it in the real world too. Duh!). The goodies have to get back on track after that.
  8. Don’t assume that if there is a teenage kid around that they don’t have something to do with the case. Do expect to have to get past a seriously protective parent to speak to them though.
  9. If the accused ( defendant ) is hopelessly implicated by have some sort of impairment- which means that this is fundamentally not fair -you can be sure that the prosecutors will “throw” the case ( legally of course) . However on some occasions the loved ones/advisors of those poor souls won’t take good advice and do a deal and they end up going to jail for a very long time.
  10. If a baddy does get away with it - don’t despair -  a couple of episodes later they will turn up again and the proscutors get another chance ( on  a different basis of course - can’t be tried for the same thing twice)

I know it is entertainment and not real life. Isn’t it?