This month's issue of California Lawyer features a cover image by Ron Lowery for Corbis, and a an article called Real Law In The Virtual World by the intriguingly named Chuleenan Svetvilas.
It reminded me of a fantastic illustration of the courtroom of the future I tore out of the Los Angeles Times years ago. The image is by Lorena Iniguez, and I'm guessing it accompanied this article from 1995 (available for $4! - - no wonder Wikipedia is killing the major newspapers in terms of traffic). Click on the image to see the jurors' virtual reality goggles, computerized judges, robot bailiffs, and floating cameras in all their glory.
While I'm on the topic of science fiction and the law, here's another of my favorite images. It's the cover of The Nation from June 3, 2002, by Aaron McGruder. Click on the image - - yes, that's Bush as Sidious, Bin Laden as Dooku, and the FBI as Clone Troopers.
Finally, courtesy of Hulu, here's an episode of Total Recall 2070, featuring a detective, some androids, and a company with questionable motives. This particular episode is called "Nothing Like The Real Thing" and the official summary is, "A man's use of black market, pornographic, recall discs causes him to lose his grip on reality and commit murder."
Meanwhile, what's practicing law really like in Los Angeles in the year two thousand and eight? Well, you electronically file documents by sending in pdfs and file paper copies. (pdf link - take my word for it.) Futuristic indeed.
