TV Judges and the Civil Law Narrative

Abstract:     
This is a collaborative study examining the relationship between popular reality-based judge television shows, 'tort tales,' and the politics of tort reform. TV judge shows share or approximate many features of the tort tale described by Haltom and McCann in Distorting the Law: Politics, Media, and the Litigation Crisis. The question driving our research is whether these TV Judge shows contribute to tort tales' conservative anti-litigation message or, instead, generate counter-narratives about the civil law system. Since tort reform is constantly a political issue, this study addresses one way in which popular support for tort reform might be mobilized.

working papers series