Hot Bench

Crime & Punishment is a 2002 reality television, nontraditional court show spin-off of the Law & Order franchise. It premiered on NBC on Sunday, June 16, 2002, and ran through the summers of 2002, 2003, and 2004.

All rise for the Honorable Judge Walsh, court is now in session. Watch Matt Walsh bring his iconic deadpan delivery of common sense solutions to real life litigants with actual petty grievances. Find humor in the judiciary process in this fresh take on the reality courtroom genre.

A tough judge balances her aversion to minor offenders with firm beliefs on justice and punishment as she tackles complex cases inside a juvenile court.

Mulla Krekar was a danger to the Norwegian security, yet he lived in the country for 30 years. This documentary follows the hated mullah and his faithful lawyer from the beginning to the end of the case.

In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.

Sidelined after an accident, hotshot Los Angeles lawyer Mickey Haller restarts his career - and his trademark Lincoln - when he takes on a murder case.

Explore the 1999 disappearance and murder of 18-year-old Baltimore County high school student Hae Min Lee, and the subsequent conviction of her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, a case brought to global attention by the hugely popular Serial podcast.

Matlock is an American television legal drama, starring Andy Griffith in the title role of criminal defense attorney Ben Matlock. The show, produced by The Fred Silverman Company, Dean Hargrove Productions, Viacom Productions and Paramount Television originally aired from September 23, 1986 to May 8, 1992 on NBC; and from November 5, 1992 until May 7, 1995 on ABC. The show's format is similar to that of CBS's Perry Mason, with Matlock identifying the perpetrators and then confronting them in dramatic courtroom scenes. One difference, however, was that whereas Mason usually exculpated his clients at a pretrial hearing, Matlock usually secured an acquittal at trial, from the jury.

The People's Court is an American arbitration-based reality court show currently presided over by retired Florida State Circuit Court Judge Marilyn Milian. Milian, the show's longest-reigning arbiter, handles small claims disputes in a simulated courtroom set. The People's Court is the first court show to use binding arbitration, introducing the format into the genre in 1981. The system has been duplicated by most of the show's successors in the judicial genre. Moreover, The People's Court is the first popular, long-running reality in the judicial genre. It was preceded only by a few short-lived realities in the genre; these short-lived predecessors were only loosely related to judicial proceedings, except for one: Parole took footage from real-life courtrooms holding legal proceedings. Prior to The People's Court, the vast majority of TV courtroom shows used actors, and recreated or fictional cases. Among examples of these types of court shows include Famous Jury Trials and Your Witness. The People's Court has had two contrasting lives. The show's first life was presided over solely by former Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Joseph Wapner. His tenure lasted from the show's debut on September 14, 1981, until May 21, 1993, when the show was cancelled due to low ratings. This left the show with a total of 2,484 ½-hour episodes and 12 seasons. The show was taped in Los Angeles during its first life. After being cancelled, reruns aired until September 9, 1994.

Each year, hopeful singers from all over the country audition to be part of one of the biggest shows in American television history. Who will become the new American Idol?

All the emotion, drama and suspense of America's most memorable murder trials are captured. Produced by an Emmy-award winning team, each episode takes viewers through the criminal justice process, from the crime to the investigation to the courtroom testimony and finally, the verdict. It's a journey through the criminal justice process that gives viewers an inside look at real cases like never before.

Kagura Ran is a former child actor-turned-lawyer who left the legal circle after her best friend was framed of murder. A year later, an article written by scriptwriter Kurosawa Jin about her ends up circulating online in which she becomes acknowledged as a capable lawyer who has never lost a case. She decides to resume her work as a lawyer once more, and attempts to regain her trust in the law by joining forces with Kurosawa in order to exonerate her friend from the accusation and resolve the case once and for all.

A sickly man with a strong mind has spent most of his childhood in a hospital. He is involved in a case of "double jeopardy," the principle that one cannot be tried for the same crime twice following either a conviction or an acquittal.

In 2023, Kevin Spacey was acquitted of sexual offences against four men in a UK trial. This documentary investigates Spacey's conduct and talks to multiple men, unconnected to that case, about their experiences with Kevin Spacey, almost all of whom have never spoken before.

Teen Michelle Carter’s actions shocked a nation — but what really happened behind closed doors?

Rafferty's Rules was an Australian television drama series which ran from 1987 to 1990 on the Seven Network. Rafferty's Rules was one of the first programs undertaken by the Seven Network's then new in-house drama unit, going into production in May 1985 as "a 15-part courtroom drama". The program had started out as a pilot episode, recorded in early 1984 with the actor Chris Haywood in the lead role. When the pilot episode was remounted later in 1984, Chris Haywood wasn't available and the lead role was re-cast to John Wood. This second recording was eventually broadcast as the program's first episode.

The court system is corrupted and old-fashioned. People desire a new system that can satisfy the crowds. However, are the crowds always correct? The drama shows how judges discover the truth about people in court. It centers around a chief judge who doesn’t believe in justice, but only makes judgements that the crowds will be satisfied with. An assistant judge starts to question his motives and tries to find the truth.

In 1983, the wife and stepdaughter of Dutch Jaitsen Singh are gruesomely murdered in California. Singh is convicted of inciting the murders, but has maintained his innocence for nearly 40 years. Given the way his case was handled at the time, this may well be true. Filmmaker Hans Pool investigates this intriguing and complex case and gets exclusive access to court and police documents that reveal a shocking story about racism, corruption, a mistress and a dubious key witness. How did Singh's American dream turn into a nightmare?

A gorgeous Yankee litigator and a charming southern attorney must hide their intense mutual attraction as a police sex scandal threatens to tear the city of Charleston, S.C. apart.  

Sędzia Anna Maria Wesołowska