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How should I write this court scenario?

H

harmonica44

So the script goes, that a cop spots a kidnapping in progress. The kidnappers have already held the woman hostage for some time and are moving her. The cop spots this in progress, saves her, and the kidnappers get away as he protects her.

So I wanna write it, so she testifies in court, and the prosecutor and defense attorney, are cross examining her, each attorney, trying to beat the other. The only problem is, is that no one has been arrested since they do not know who the kidnappers are. Is it legal procedure to get a witness on the record, just to see if you have enough evidence for a future arrest, for when that future arrest comes? Or will they not have a court hearing about it, and just wait and see what turns up, while protecting the witness? Another thing is the defense attorney who plays a part in trying to get the case so it does not go any further. Since no arrests have been made, who is this lawyer representing? I have a strange scenario here.

Basically I want to write it so their is a hearing to here the potential evidence of the witness, but at the same time, do not want the kidnappers to be arrested, so therefore, they are free to commit crimes during the hearing.
 
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No arrest, no trial. The only (ultra rare) exception is when someone is tried in absentia. That means that they know who did it, when, where, and how. The suspect has been arrested for the charge and skipped before trial. He's still on trial and still represented by counsel, but is not present and will almost always be convicted.
 
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Well I want them to have a hearing to get the witness on the record, for a future case. In case the witness is killed before future arrests are made, and they need it on the record with the arguments and all. Or whatever reason will work for the story.
 
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A witness cannot testify against an unknown or not arrested suspect. In the real world, the cop would rescue the girl and attempt to arrest the bad guys. The victim gives a statement and the police try to locate/identify the bad guy(s). If there is justification to place the victim into protective custody, they will. Unless and until there is an arrest, there will be no trial. A witness may be deposed prior to a trial if they are sick and there is a high likelihood that they might not survive until trial. During a deposition, there is a court reporter, and lawyers for both sides. Here's the problem that you're going to have with this scenario; there is no defendant, so there is no defense attorney.
 
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Okay thanks. Where would the deposition be taken, the courtroom? I also forgot to mention that there is a lot of media surrounding the case, and I want the media to be outside the building, ready to grill questions at the witness, on her way out. So will the media be so eager to show up at just a deposition if they had found out when and where it was going to be?
 
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harmonica44 said:
So the script goes, that a cop spots a kidnapping in progress. The kidnappers have already held the woman hostage for some time and are moving her. The cop spots this in progress, saves her, and the kidnappers get away as he protects her.

So I wanna write it, so she testifies in court, and the prosecutor and defense attorney, are cross examining her, each attorney, trying to beat the other. The only problem is, is that no one has been arrested since they do not know who the kidnappers are. Is it legal procedure to get a witness on the record, just to see if you have enough evidence for a future arrest, for when that future arrest comes? Or will they not have a court hearing about it, and just wait and see what turns up, while protecting the witness? Another thing is the defense attorney who plays a part in trying to get the case so it does not go any further. Since no arrests have been made, who is this lawyer representing? I have a strange scenario here.

Basically I want to write it so their is a hearing to here the potential evidence of the witness, but at the same time, do not want the kidnappers to be arrested, so therefore, they are free to commit crimes during the hearing.
Click to expand...

This is a detective story, not as courtroom one. The lawyers should all be cops.
 
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harmonica44 said:
Where would the deposition be taken, the courtroom?
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I've been involved in a lot of police/courtroom dramas, you really need to go and do some serious research, the legal system in your country is not going to be identical to the legal system in the USA for example. Having said this, in the western world courts exist to test the evidence presented against a defendant, not to gather the evidence in the first place. In a criminal case the evidence is gathered by the police, that is why Police Detectives exist in the first place! It's a basic tenet of the legal systems of democratic countries for the courts to try a case without prejudice. This cannot occur if the court itself has been responsible for gathering the evidence or building the case against a defendant.

While theoretically you can make almost anything happen in film, in practice when presenting a real life procedure you can attract a great deal of criticism and drag a considerable portion of your audience out of your story if you diverge too far from usual procedure unless you can come up with a particularly convincing and believable reason to justify an exception. The ONLY way you can do this is with considerable research and even then, what maybe true of your legal system may still not be credible as far as an audience is concerned.

G
 
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harmonica44 said:
Where would the deposition be taken, the courtroom?...So will the media be so eager to show up at just a deposition if they had found out when and where it was going to be?
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Depositions are not taken in courtrooms (at least in the US), they are usually taken in the attorney's offices - an agreement is reached between the parties prior to the deposition takes place through a discovery/case management order.

As for the media, its your world - if they are interested in getting at the witness they will appear outside the offices and try and get their questions in. If they are not interested, they will not
 
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In certain U.S. jurisdictions a member of the DAs (District Attorneys) Office may be part of, or even lead, an investigatory task force; this usually occurs at the state or federal level, although many larger cities also follow this pattern.
 
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I want to write a good story, but at the same time do not want to be criticized for making things up also. I mean I for one have criticized some movies for being what I thought was too fake in it's legal and judicial scenarios, but it's hard to know where the line is drawn. And if it's an indie film where people will be looking at your work thoroughly, it could matter more compared to something like a Die Hard movie for example, where they tend to let things slide a little more.
 
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I think go with good cop bad cop. If one does not believe her story or believes the whole thing is a publicity stunt it might work. Or the bad cop is in on the kidnapping.

The media can eat her up if they believe it is a publicity stunt or she is accusing someone who is publicly loved.

Just my .0143 after tax
 
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8salacious9 said:
what exactly are you trying to say?

i didnt get your point unless english isnt your first language and you meant something else...:huh:
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There's an awful lot of "I did it my way" films out there. And a 100,000 writers with a million scripts and and a million directors with 8,000,000 films in the can collecting dust

If he can't please an audience, then he's just playing garage band, and I refuse to believe that's what he's after.

Audience's like things they can relate to, and although they are willing to suspend belief, their are lines they won't cross. If your court doesn't function more or less in a normal fashion, the story is lost in the re-interpretation of a normal thing forced upon the audience, leaving them confused and bothered when their girlfriends keeps saying, "Why'd that happen?" the whole freakin' scene!

Even the court in Thunderdome is essential standard.

That "it's my film" attitude is a glue that keeps one back 99.99999999% of the time.
Besides, it's settling.
 
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Alright, here's the best scenario I can think of for you, a Grand Jury Inquiry. The police have run down the leads and have the name of one or more of the kidnappers. the kicker is that one of the suspects is some sort of well known figure and the police can't arrest him without a warrant. The judge won't sign off on the arrest warrant because of the suspect's fame/position and the DA calls a Grand Jury Inquiry where the DA lays out the evidence in the case and the attorney representing the suspect gets to question the victim with the intention of discrediting her so that the jury will find "no true bill", which means that charges would not be filed. The vast majority of people have no idea what happens in these proceedings so you can get away with it as long as it's written well. As far as the media, yes they would really want to be there to hear if the Grand Jury comes back with a True Bill (charges filed) or No True Bill (no charges).
 
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Lucky Hardwood said:
Alright, here's the best scenario I can think of for you, a Grand Jury Inquiry.
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This is why H44 needs to do some research. AFAIK a Grand Jury Inquiry of the type you describe may not exist in Canadian law, it doesn't in British law for example and also, what can be reported by the media is much more tightly controlled in most countries regarding court proceedings than in the US. Again in Britain press reporting has to stay within the bounds of the laws of Contempt of Court, which means in theory at least the press cannot publish anything which would influence or prejudice the case and therefore make a fair trial impossible.

G
 
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harmonica44 said:
I want to write a good story, but at the same time do not want to be criticized for making things up also. I mean I for one have criticized some movies for being what I thought was too fake in it's legal and judicial scenarios,
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Are you a jurist or a lawyer? If not, then what you may be criticizing may be correct procedure. As AudioPostExpert has mentioned you need to do research, something that the people on this forum can not do for you or your script.
 
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