Goofs

Throughout the film, the length of time that the woman is said to have been in a coma is 4 years (the confrontation between the husband and Frank Galvin, for example), but during his cross-examination of Kaitlin Price, Galvin gives the date of the operation as May 12, 1976. The date on the check Bishop Brophy offered to Galvin is dated February 13, 1982, making it nearly 6 years since the woman went into the coma.

When Concannon hears that the plaintiff's expert witness is Black, he tells his assistant to have a Black lawyer sit at their table. Then they have the trial, and there's not an African American lawyer in the courtroom.

When Galvin talks to the nurse, his boarding pass sleeve is sticking out of his jacket pocket almost to his shoulder. He then talks to Mick in the street and the boarding pass is still seen prominently out of the pocket from a distance. Galvin runs from talking to Mick into the bar where Laura is and the boarding pass now barely sticks out and looks more like a pocket square and is nowhere near his shoulder.

Frank takes Polaroids of Deborah and lays them on the bed apart from each other, but when seen from an overhead view, they are touching.

Early in the movie Galvin is reading the obituaries in the newspaper. He puts down his pen to take a drink of his whiskey, but in the next shot, when he takes the drink, the pen is back in his hand.

The case Concannon cites at a key moment is described with an incorrect legal form. For the United States legal reporter, the citation should be a whole number followed by "U.S." or "United States" and then another whole number, not a decimal.

Near the end, the bishop wears his ring on his left hand. Bishops wear their episcopal rings only on the right hand.

Frank gets a telephone bill at his office with a zip code of 02981. Boston zip codes begin with "021" and "022". The zip code for the real address shown, 124 States St. in Boston is 02109. Also, there is no postage on the envelope and an obviously fake cancellation mark.

When Frank enters the hospital chapel to confront Nurse Rooney, he genuflects, with his right knee to the floor and his left knee up, the correct method in the Catholic tradition. While he waits, another nurse enters and genuflects in the same way. When Nurse Rooney turns to face the altar, she takes the opposite knee, incorrectly.

When, early in the movie, the viewer learns about Nurse Rooney, it is said that she lives in Arlington. Later in the movie when Galvin visits her and then, later, pilfers her mail, it's clear that she lives on G Street in South Boston.

Early in the film, when Frank leaves a building, a reflection in the window reveals an entire crowd of people across the street watching the scene of Paul Newman being filmed.

(at around 20 mins) When Frank is sitting in his apartment, speaking on the telephone to Sally Doneghy, a copy of the 'Boston Herald American' can be seen on the table in the bottom right of the screen. When Frank closes the paper he is reading and throws it onto the floor, it is clear that this is a second copy of the same newspaper with the same headline. Additionally, a prospective juror is seen days later (at around 45 mins) reading the same paper with the headline "Cops Stalk Terror Gang".

When Frank is playing the pinball machine, he randomly presses the flippers to no effect while the ball is on the board and makes no attempt to flip the ball back into play when when it goes down, allowing it to roll off the end of the flipper. Yet he manages to score high.

Early in the film, Frank two-finger-types a note on a manual typewriter to tape on the door of his office suite. When the note is seen, however, the typed letters are perfectly uniform in darkness and thickness, indicating that the note was typed on an electric typewriter.

The pinball machine Frank Galvin plays at the bar is named Disco Fever, and is an early electronic pinball, with digital sound and gas discharge score displays. The sound effects however, are of mechanical bells and score reels made by an electro-mechanical pinball machine made before 1976.

Early on when Mickey drags Frank away, there is a low tracking shot. The camera/camera operator's shadow can be seen on the wall.

In the climactic courtroom scene, when Frank calls Kaitlin to the stand, Concannon is flustered and confers with one of his lawyers. The lawyer then leaves the courtroom, presumably having been given some direction by Concannon. Later, after Kaitlin has been questioned by Frank and cross-examined by Concannon, the lawyer returns with a book containing the case Concannon cites to get the judge to disallow the admittance of the photocopy of the hospital admission form as evidence. However, at the point at which Concannon calls the lawyer over and then, presumably, sends him out to "find" this book/case, he doesn't even know about the existence of the photocopy because he hasn't yet questioned Kaitlin; it's during his questioning of Kaitlin that she reveals she has a photocopy of the form. So there's no way the lawyer would have known to go out and find a case regarding the inadmissibility of a photocopy.

In common law, when a lawyer has received an offer from opposing council, your lawyer must present this offer to his client (the sister and brother-in-law), and it is up to them to accept or reject the offer. The lawyer is to take his instructions from his client. The opposing council is not allowed to discuss the case of offers, etc. with the client (sister or brother-in-law). Both of these actions could be grounds for disbarment or sanctions and fines against both lawyers.

The major legal rulings at the climax are actually gross misunderstandings of the rules of evidence as they had existed under common law for centuries at the time of the trial, rather than being obviously legally correct as the characters suggest.

A few minutes into the film while Frank is at a bar telling a joke, there is a boom mic visible just behind the counter near the beer taps.

Laura tells Frank she will meet him in New York City at the Russell Hotel on 38th St. The hotel was actually on 37th St. and Park Avenue. The hotel was built in 1921 and demolished in 2006.

Concannon states that the trial is due to start on February 19th. The year presumably is 1982, as that is the year written on the check Bishop Brophy offered to Galvin. February 19, 1982 was a Friday. However, when Judge Hoyle is speaking to Concannon and Galvin before the trial, he states the trial will begin "next Thursday".