"Prosecutors put massive pressure on defendants to take plea deals, meaning that 97% of criminal cases don’t go to trial. And obviously, “Law & Order” can’t reflect that reality. It’d be unwatchable. No one wants a show where 97% of episodes end with two lawyers striking a deal in a windowless room, and then you get to watch the defendant serve 6 months, then struggle to get a job at their local jiffy lube. But the courtroom half of “Law & Order” actually represents a significant departure from TV tradition. Because historically, lawyer shows centered defense lawyers like Perry Mason, who tried to work against the system as the underdog and free innocent people. But “Law & Order” is different, and that’s very much by design. Dick Wolf has said, “I believed the heroes weren’t the defense attorneys who were getting these scumbags off, the heroes were the prosecutors.”"