By Steven Hartman · March 4, 2024
With tens of thousands of trials every year and countless other legal matters happening, there is never a lack of stories centering around lawyers, judges, defendants, victims, and other people within the justice system. Writers can find the inspiration behind every story, whether you want to write one based on true events or come up with an original legal thriller, drama, or comedy narrative. If you’re looking to write a procedural drama or courtroom screenplay that takes place within the legal field, these are 10 screenplays you’ll want to check out.
Logline: A veteran British barrister must defend his client in a murder trial that has surprise after surprise.
Screenplay By: Billy Wilder, Howard Kurnitz
A curmudgeon lawyer takes on an intriguing case of a man who allegedly murdered an older woman for her money. There are many twists and turns in this legal drama as the trial commences in the courtroom, and witnesses begin testifying that the man did indeed want to kill the woman.
Even so, the crafty old lawyer has a way of discrediting the witnesses for the prosecution, which all culminates into a surprise ending—so surprising that it even pleads with the audience not to share them with their friends.
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Logline: A jury holdout attempts to prevent a miscarriage of justice by forcing his colleagues to reconsider the evidence.
Screenplay By: Reginald Rose
Another film from 1957 that has gained acclaim for being a top-rated legal drama is 12 Angry Men. Originally a television play, the film is a solid lesson in building tension and drama in a single location and a minimal cast.
The story peeks inside the jury room of a murder trial and the lone juror who holds out in convicting the defendant. The trial seems like a no-brainer until the single juror instills doubt in the others and slowly changes their minds despite hostilities from the other 11 impatient jurors. There have been countless iterations of this story on stage and screen, but this 1957 version is one of the best.
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Logline: 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.
Screenplay By: David Mamet, Barry Reed
Paul Newman plays an alcoholic lawyer who generally takes the easy path by settling a case rather than going to court, a common theme in the legal genre. Known as an ambulance chaser, he sees the injustice within hospitals. He finds a chance to redeem himself despite the doctors, judges, client’s family involved with a medical malpractice case, and a close friend who all feel going to trial is a guaranteed loser.
After rejecting the settlement, he soon realizes that the case is an impossible David vs. Goliath attempt for justice as it seems forces are at work to make him lose. One last shot at saving himself may have just become the worst decision of his life.
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Logline: Lt. Daniel Kaffee is a military lawyer defending two U.S. Marines charged with killing a fellow Marine at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Although Kaffee is known for seeking plea bargains, a fellow lawyer, Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway, convinces him that the accused marines were most likely carrying out an order from a commanding officer. Kaffee takes a risk by calling Col. Nathan R. Jessep to the stand in an effort to uncover the conspiracy.
Screenplay By: Aaron Sorkin
Based on a play written by Aaron Sorkin, A Few Good Men helped launch his career after it became a smash hit directed by Rob Reiner and starred some of the 1990s biggest movie stars. It also clicks a lot of the boxes of a courtroom drama, including a solid closing argument, an eager young lawyer with something to prove, and a struggle to uncover the truth.
A Few Good Men is about a hot-shot young lawyer who generally takes the easy way out of his cases. When tasked to defend a pair of marines accused of killing a fellow marine, he finds he must contend with a system that doesn’t always mesh well with the law. The case takes a turn when the possibility that the two marines were ordered by a commanding officer to commit the murder arises.
It also provides one of AFI’s 100 Greatest Movie Quotes of All Time: “You can’t handle the truth!”
Download the script!Read More: 50 Gold Screenwriting Quotes to Jump Start Your Creativity
Logline: Two New Yorkers accused of murder in rural Alabama while on their way back to college call in the help of one of their cousins, a loudmouth lawyer with no trial experience.
Screenplay By: Dale Launer
In this fish-out-of-water comedy, Vinny is a big-city lawyer heading to rural Alabama to help defend his cousin and a friend in a murder trial. Although he is way over his head, Vinny, with the help of his fiancée, tries to finagle the legal system and set his cousin free.
The fact that Vinny is inexperienced is a great touch to the story because it brings a naivete that engages the audience, who likely isn’t well-versed in the legal system. As Vinny learns, so do we. The well-written script exemplifies how it builds an environment that leads to misunderstandings, cultural clashes, and unorthodox legal tactics in the courtroom.
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Longline: A fast-track lawyer can’t lie for 24 hours due to his son’s birthday wish after he disappoints his son for the last time.
Screenplay By: Paul Guay, Stephen Mazur
Throughout the 1990s, several comedies centered around divorced fathers not being around for their sons, such as The Santa Clause. In Jim Carrey’s first somewhat normal role as a lawyer and father, Liar Liar plays on the concept that lawyers bend the truth to win cases. Fletcher (Carrey) is too busy to spend time with his son and creates elaborate excuses for why he can’t be there.
On his birthday, Fletcher’s son wishes for his dad to have to tell the truth, and that is exactly what happens. With the biggest case of his life, Fletcher must navigate the legal world in the courtroom with brutal honesty while defending a client who most believes is guilty.
This film plays on the old joke that goes:
Q: How do you know when a lawyer isn’t telling the truth?
A: They’re talking.
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Logline: An unemployed single mother becomes a legal assistant and almost single-handedly brings down a California power company accused of polluting a city’s water supply.
Screenplay By: Susannah Grant
Based on a true story, this is the story of a single mom who ends up working for a lawyer she hired but can’t afford to pay. From her demeanor to her education level, Erin Brockovich seems to be someone no one takes seriously. She uses this to her advantage as she starts investigating a California energy company’s contamination of a residential area by illegally dumping chemicals.
Her determination leads to one of the largest class action lawsuits in American history as this unlikely hero becomes the savior of the small-town residents who never stood a chance against the Pacific Gas & Electric Company.
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Logline: Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) has it all. She wants nothing more than to be Mrs. Warner Huntington III. But there is one thing stopping him (Matthew Davis) from proposing: She is too blond. Elle rallies all of her resources and gets into Harvard, determined to win him back.
Screenplay By: Karen McCullah, Kirsten Smith, Amanda Brown
Legally Blonde became a classic in the early-aughts, launching Reese Witherspoon’s career into lead actress stardom (four years later, she would win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as June Carter in Walk the Line).
The film follows ditsy, super-blonde fashion graduate Elle Woods embarking on a journey across the country to get her Harvard Law School-attending ex-boyfriend back. Getting into the prestigious law school was easy enough, but everyone doubts her and her unique ability to see things that more serious students can’t, sparking a fire that burns to prove everyone wrong. Elle then is given the chance to defend a diet icon convicted of murdering her husband in the courtroom.
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Logline: In 1969, seven people were charged by the federal government with conspiracy and more, arising from the protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Screenplay By: Aaron Sorkin
The 1960s were an amazing decade to focus on for storytelling, and it all seemed to culminate in 1968 with the assassination of high-profile individuals, a war raging on the other side of the world, riots throughout America, and protests everywhere.
The focus of Aaron Sorkin’s second legal drama on the list is a trial of seven individuals arrested during the tumultuous 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. The film shows how the world would lump together groups of “agitators” regardless of their actual affiliation with one another and put them all on a seemingly unfair trial in the courtroom. Regardless of their differences, the group on trial and their lawyer must all work together to win their case.
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Logline: Aspiring Florida defense lawyer Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves) accepts a high-powered position at a New York law firm headed by legal shark John Milton (Al Pacino). As Kevin moves up in the firm’s ranks, his wife, Mary Ann (Charlize Theron), has several frightening, mystical experiences that begin to warp her sense of reality. With the stakes getting higher with each case, Kevin quickly learns that his mentor is planning a far greater evil than simply winning without scruples.
Screenplay By: Andrew Neiderman, Jonathan Lemkin, Tony Gilroy
Whereas My Cousin Vinny took a New York lawyer to the south, The Devil’s Advocate brings a hot-shot Florida lawyer to the big city where his exceptionally flashy boss embraces him like a son. But there is more to the law firm than meets the eye as the Florida lawyer gets deeper into his work.
As he struggles to build the defense of a rich man accused of murder, he continues neglecting his wife while also finding sinful temptations around every corner. There is a lot of religious symbolism throughout the film, playing on lawyers being devilish figures who help keep the sinners free.
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A great courtroom monologue, an eager young lawyer on an impossible case, or someone who has something to prove—these screenplays have the tropes found in some of the most renowned legal films around.
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