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In the TV Show |
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Set in 2012 and later. The novel starts with Mickey Haller in court defending Leonard Watts against charges of carjacking and robbery of Clair Welton. |
Set in 2024. Starts with a 15 year flashback with Mickey and Maggie meeting on the beach. They are still married and Hayley is in daycare. Mickey is defending a man named Woodson. On the way home he sees the classic Lincoln he currently drives. |
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Haller tries to impeach a witness’ identification of the suspect, Watts, but he fails completely. Haller tells Watts that “We’re done”. Watts gets upset and attacks Haller at the defense table. Watts is taken to a holding cell and the judge declares a mistrial. This was planned by Haller and Watts to obtain a mistrial after the poor cross examination of the lead witness. The prosecuting attorney suspected Haller of manipulating the court. Jennifer Aronson handles Watts’ case afterwords and negotiates a plea deal. |
In episode #2, Haller is representing a man in court accused of robbing a woman’s house. He fails to discredit her eyewitness testimony. After Haller tells his client he is unable to do much, his client attacks him. The judge declares a mistrial. This was planned by Haller and his client. The prosecutor accuses Haller of manipulating the court. Nothing more is heard about this client.
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This is not in the book. |
Haller is in court defending a client named Mr. Woodson on a murder charge. He is questioning detective Bishop about a gun found that was not covered in the area specified by the search warrant. Bishop retires as a result of his poor performance and becomes an investigator for the prosecutor’s office. |
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A film was made about Haller in the recent past and as a result, several more “Lincoln Lawyers” popped up in the county. Haller is back to working out of his Lincoln while his assistant Lorna works out of her condo. Their occasional office/meeting place is a half empty building in East Hollywood whose landlord Haller represents in his foreclosure defense. |
Nothing about a film in the TV series. Izzy is still Haller’s driver and helps Lorna in the office. Haller’s law firm is still working out of the office they had the year before. Lorna does paralegal work and is working on passing the bar exam.
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Haller ran for DA after the events of “The Fifth Witness”; he lost. There was a scandal related to a man (Sean Gallagher) he got off for a DUI on a technicality and who later killed two people (Sandy and Katie Patterson). It cost him the love and companionship of his daughter Hayley (she knew the Pattersons) and any shot at putting his broken family back together. Haller gets drunk every Friday night so he can sleep on the weekends. |
Haller did not run for DA. Haller is still on good terms with Maggie and Hayley. Haller tells Maggie that he is considering being a private defense attorney so that he and Maggie can afford a better house to raise Hayley in. The scandal related to Sean Gallagher is not in the TV series. |
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Jennifer Aronson works for Haller as his associate. She is a skilled lawyer and Haller counts on her to bring clients and money into the firm. Aronson normally sits with Haller at the defense table for the big cases; during the La Cosse trial she explains to their client what is happening. Aronson is not in the TV series. |
Haller is the only lawyer in his “firm”. Lorna takes and passes the bar exam She expects Haller to hire her as an associate. He offers her a higher than expected salary; she can now afford the house she wants to buy. Lorna sits next to Haller during the La Cosse trial.
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Haller is once again, hungry for more clients since his last big case a year ago. |
This is not an issue in the TV series although they still have clients that are slow paying them. |
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Andre La Cosse is accused of murdering Giselle Dallinger (Gloria Dayton). Dayton had previously told La Cosse to contact Haller if he got in trouble. |
From the end of the final episode in season 2; Mickey meets a new potential client in jail, Julian La Cosse. Julian tells Mickey that he was arrested for the murder of Giselle Dallinger. Mickey goes to the morgue and sees that it is Gloria Dayton.
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La Cosse sends Haller an initial payment in the form of one kilogram of gold ($54,000). Haller had requested $25,000 to start, more if they went to trial.
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After talking to La Cosse in jail, Haller is told he will get the fee delivered. The next morning Haller gets a package delivered to him with a gold bar in it, from La Cosse. Izzy brings the gold bar to a store and gets $56,000 which she puts in the firm’s operating account. David (Julian’s partner) comes to talk to Lorna about getting La Cosse out on bail.
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Cisco finds a GPS tracker on Haller’s Lincoln, but no bugs. Heller decides to leave it in place to deceive the person tracking him. Cisco’s friends watch Haller as he travels and do not think he is being followed. |
Cisco thinks someone put a tracker on his car; possibly how Sly found out Haller was at Trina’s apartment. Cisco does not find a tracker.
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Haller’s driver is named Earl Briggs. Earl drives for Haller when working off legal fees; this time it is for his mother’s legal expenses. |
Hayley talks to her dad about a friend of hers, Eddie Rojas, who was arrested for carjacking. The public defender wants him to plead guilty. Hayley guilts her dad into defending him. Haller gets the charges reduced to joyriding, time served, with no fine, and expungement of Eddie’s conviction after revealing that the “victim” was lying on the stand. Eddie is hired to be the driver. |
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Haller is served with a subpoena regarding the conviction of Hector Arrande Moya. Sylvester Fulgoni Jr. suspects that Haller was involved in a confidential informant planting evidence on Moya that resulted in a life sentence in prison. Fulgoni is appealing. |
In episode #3 Haller is served with a subpoena regarding the conviction of Hector Moya. Val asks for directions on how to find Agent De Marco to serve another subpoena. Slyvester Funaro Jr. is Moya's lawyer.
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Haller interviews Kendall Roberts about Gloria’s past. She refuses to talk about Hector Mayo until Earl intimidates her into doing so. Haller gets little information from her. Roberts admits to dealing cocaine to her clients; it came from Moya through Trina and Gloria.
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Haller talks to Kendall Roberts about Gloria Dayton’s past; she refuses until Eddie pleads with her to do so. She tells Haller about Gloria and Trina Trixxx’s clients. She denied dealing any cocaine. Roberts appears briefly in the series later on when allowing Trina Trixxx to stay with her after testifying at trial.
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Kendall Roberts and Haller have an affair that lasts through most of the La Cosse trial.
Andrea freeman is not in the book.
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Haller and prosecuting attorney Andrea Freeman have an affair during the TV series.
There is a subplot about Andrea Freeman prosecuting a man who beat his ex-wife and later murders her. She is demoted as a result, but later regains her position in the office.
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La Cosse tells the police that he grabbed Gloria by the throat briefly while arguing with her, but he left her alive. The police arrest him after this admission. |
Haller talks to La Cosse about Gloria Dayton’s last night alive. He admits to grabbing Gloria Dayton by the neck to make her stop leaving. Haller threatens to quit his case. La Cosse begs him to stay on as his lawyer. La Cosse signs a conflict of interest waiver so Haller can represent him. |
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La Cosse does not have a panic attack. |
La Cosse ends up in the hospital after a panic attack in the prison bus. David begs Haller to get him out on bail.
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This does not happen in the book. |
Haller goes home after his date with Maggie to find his house broken into and trashed. He finds a rattle snake in his bed. Lorna wants Haller to obtain protection from the Road Saints, Cisco’s old gang. |
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Cisco determines out that retired detective Lankford was tailing Gloria the night she was killed. He is the unknown man in the hat following her in the hotel where she attempted to meet a client for sex. |
Cisco on the hotel security footage that Gloria Dayton went to the client’s room, then went back down to the lobby where a man in a hat started following her. Cisco locates the man in the hat’s green Civic at a junk yard and gets the VIN number. The car is traced to Jake Houlihan LAPD, a retired partner of detective Bishop, the man in the hat in the hotel security video.
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Haller goes to watch his daughter Hayley at soccer practice by looking at the practice field from a hill some distance away. He doesn’t see her, so he calls his ex-wife Maggie and is told that Hayley quit soccer a month ago to concentrate on horse riding lessons and school. Maggie also tells Haller that they’re moving 90 minutes away so she can take a job at the Ventura County DA’s office. She is starting a digital crime unit. Maggie had backed Haller in the DA election he lost, so it badly affected her career in LA county. |
Haller watches Hayley riding her horse from a hilltop with binoculars. Maggie meets Haller while he is spying on his daughter. Maggie says Hayley will forgive him some day. |
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This does not happen in the book. |
Izzy talks to a friend about getting information from the hotel that Gloria Dayton was meeting clients at. He wants salacious information on Haller. Izzy suggests that she will tell the man’s boss he used to run drugs.
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La Cosse’s partner, David is not present at the trial. David removed La Cosse’s remaining gold from storage and left the city with Haller only getting two of the three payments promised. Haller can no longer afford to have Jennifer Aronson working on the La Cosse trial as she is needed to work with clients who can pay. |
Haller tells La Cosse that it will take eight months for his case to go to trial. He asks Haller to tell David not to visit him in prison anymore. There is no problem with Haller being paid for the La Cosse trial. |
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After leaving the prison meetings with Moya and Fulgoni Sr., Haller’s Lincoln is rammed hard on the freeway and goes off the road. Earl is ejected from the vehicle and dies at the scene when the Lincoln rolls over him body. Haller has minor injuries. A red tow truck hit him and ran from the scene. |
While returning home from the prison, a tow truck runs Haller’s Lincoln off of the road. Haller is lightly injured. Eddie dies inside of the Lincoln. Hayley blames Haller for the death of her friend; she blocks him on Facebook.
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Lorna never went to law school and is not studying to be a lawyer. |
Lorna passed the bar exam and starts working with Haller as an associate layer. |
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Lorna is the office manager. Izzy Letts is not in the book. |
There a subplot concerning Izzy’s lack of clients at her dance studio due to a competing gym on the block owned by her landlord. She is torn between driving for Haller and getting another better job. Haller offers her a job as his office manager; she pushes for a raise and benefits. She is hired to Lorna’s glee.
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Haller feels guilty for leaving the tracker on his vehicle and taunting the people by using it to visit Moya in prison. This had resulted in the hit and run that killed Earl. Haller thinks Marco removed the tracker from the Lincoln after the hit and run. Haller quit drinking prior to jury selection. |
Nothing about a tracker on Haller’s vehicle. Haller has not been drinking for years. |
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Haller sees two men watching the trial who he thinks are Moya’s associates; they are there to watch over Haller and protect him as the La Cosse case is central to Moya’s habeas petition. The men also follow Haller around when he is outside of the courthouse. |
Moya gifts Haller an armored SUV along with a cartel bodyguard.
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Haller has not hired another driver or bought another car since Earl’s death; Lorna has been driving him around. Haller is waiting on the police investigation and insurance company for settlement money.
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Izzy Letts resumes driving Haller to and from court. Lorna occasionally drives him also. Nothing about insurance settlements. |
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After Haller leaves the courtroom during a break, Lankford assaults him in the restroom and demands to know why he is on the new witness list. Haller also meets Harry Bosch briefing prior to leaving the court house. |
Bishop confronts Haller in the restroom during a break. Afterwards, Haller tells his cartel bodyguard that he needs to follow him into the restrooms from now on.
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No interns are working for Haller. |
There is a intern working in the office by the name of Jessica. |
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Haller accidently insults the judge by recommending that they break for lunch while awaiting his next witness. Haller is threatened with lunch in jail by the judge after the jury leaves the courtroom. |
This does not happen in the TV series.
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This does not happen in the book. |
Cisco drives to Las Vegas and talks to a gun dealer (Budwin) who testified that he sold a desert eagle pistol to Moya. The dealer refuses to discuss it with him. Cisco asks Lorna to check out the wife who is carrying a Fendi handbag worth $30k. Cisco learns she deals drugs on the side. He convinces her to talk to him about agent De Marco. |
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Two months after the hit and run, Lorna criticizes Haller for leaving the tracker in place and contributing to Earl’s death.
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This does not happen in the TV series.
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The prosecutor upsets the judge by calling Gloria a whore. He apologizes and refers to her as a prostitute. |
This does not happen in the TV series. |
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Jennifer Aronson will present arguments to the court on the inclusion of Haller new list of 33 witnesses. Haller especially wants Stratton Sterghos to testify as he is able to connect Lankford and Marco to two murders of drug dealers in a house across the street from Gloria’s residence. |
Lorna presents these arguments after she passes the bar exam. Jennifer Aronson is not in the TV series.
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Ten years ago, Lankford was involved in a double murder investigation. Haller is trying to prove that Lankford and Marco are dirty and work together.
Haller thinks that Marco will try to discredit Sterghos as a witness to anything that happened during their murder investigation ten years ago.
Haller and Cisco rent Sterghos’ house (for $4000) for film production; Sterghos’ took his family to Florida. They then manage to get video of Lankford and Marco planting drugs in a house of a man that Haller was never going to use as a witness anyway.
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De Marco and Bishop are the officers that Haller is trying to catch on video. |
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This does not happen in the book. |
When returning home at night, the police arrest Haller’s cartel bodyguard as he is an illegal alien. Haller thinks De Marco was behind this action. The Road Saints biker club take over escort duties.
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This does not happen in the book. Lorna is not a lawyer and Sam Scales is not a client at this time. |
Haller assigns the case of Daniel Varela (Sam Scales) to Lorna. It is another charity scam he was arrested for. He was collecting grocery cards for striking workers. He raised $300,000 but only donated $100,000. He is looking three years in prison. Lorna is able to make a plea deal with the state. |
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This does not happen in the book. |
Legal gets kicked out of the nursing home for missing physical therapy appointments, eating unauthorized smuggled in food (from Haller) and throwing cheese cake at the staff. Haller takes him to his home.
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After the judge recesses for the day, Haller mocks Lankford by telling him that he knows he was following Gloria the day she was murdered. Lankford tries to grab Haller by his tie, but it is a clip-on that he wears while in court or at a prison for safety reasons. |
This does not happen in the book. Haller is never shown wearing a clip-on tie. |
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This does not happen in the book as Lorna is not a lawyer.
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Lorna is in court to represent a client during arraignment.
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Haller is called from the County jail and told La Cosse was stabbed and is in critical condition. Haller directs Aronson to write up a blueprint against a mistrial. Haller wants to proceed with the trial in absentia. |
While getting on the bus to go to court, La Cosse is stabbed by another inmate and seriously injured. Haller wants to prevent a mistrial; Forsyth will surely ask for a mistrial to regroup his prosecution and keep La Cosse in jail for another year. Haller tells the judge that La Cosse might have been stabbed to cause a mistrial. Lorna argues to the judge that it would be prejudicial to have a mistrial. She argues that La Cosse be tried in absentia. |
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The state asks the judge for a mistrial after La Cosse was stabbed. Haller objects and Jennifer Aronson gives a very good and unrehearsed brief to the judge; Legal Seigel assisted her with the brief. Haller is proud of her performance. Haller also shows a photo of La Cosse signing the waiver to appear at trial. The motion for the mistrial is denied. David, by this time, had already left the city along with La Cosse’s remaining gold used to pay Haller for defending him. |
Izzy calls and tells Haller that La Cosse is awake (she is lying). The judge grants a 90 minute recess so Haller can talk to La Cosse. Haller returns to the judge with a waiver signed by La Cosse to allow the trial to continue in absentia. David testifies that La Cosse signed the waiver to allow the trial to continue. Lorna makes good arguments in front of the judge. The judge allows the trial to continue.
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This does not happen in the book. |
Cisco goes to Trina’s apartment and finds that she has left the city. Cisco finds her with Kendall Roberts; says De Marco pressured her to lie on the stand and she will not testify again unless De Marco is arrested. |
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Prior to calling Marcos to the stand, Haller asks the judge for permission to treat him as hostile and to have him surrender his openly carried firearm. The judge denies both requests. While testifying, Marco denies knowing Gloria Dayton or that she was his informant. Haller requests that he be made available for further testimony.
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Haller does not request that De Marco be treated as a hostile witness or that he be disarmed.
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Haller shows the video of Lankford and Marco breaking into Sterghos’ residence to plant the drugs. After the video is finished, Haller whispers to Lankford that he wants Marco to go down instead. |
Haller talks to Bishop outside of the courtroom. He shows him the video of him and De Marco hiding drugs in the Sterghos house. Bishop begs Haller to never show that video to anyone.
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Lankford admits to conspiring with helping Marco murder Gloria Dayton. After Haller ends his questioning, Lankford pulls out a small pistol from his boot and shoots himself in the head. |
Bishop shoots himself in the head after his damning testimony.
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Haller later hears that Marco left the courtroom after Lankford shot himself and was not seen by anyone afterwards. |
Cisco follows Agent De Marco out of the courthouse during the time that Bishop is testifying. De Marco starts driving erratically and trying to evade Cisco; De Marco gets away. |
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A mistrial is declared and the state dismissed all charges against La Cosse citing the likelihood of his innocence. La Cosse was transferred to a good hospital and Haller sent every invoice from the hospital to the DA’s office. |
Haller visits La Cosse in a real hospital. He is no longer handcuffed to the bed. The charges were dismissed. Haller offers to initiate a lawsuit if required to obtain fair compensation for La Cosse’s injuries and police misconduct.
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Haller handled La Cosse’s civil suit and settled for $2.4 million plus medical bills. Haller’s cut was the firms single biggest paycheck; he gave everyone bonuses and sent Earl’s mother $100,000. Heller went on a Hawaii vacation and bought two low mileage 2011 Lincoln Town Cars. |
The state settles with Haller/La Cosse for a substantial sum. Haller wanted more than money. His staff is impressed; La Cosse is happy with the settlement. Haller gives his staff bonuses and says he will take a vacation. Noting about money for Eddie’s family or a new Lincoln. |
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Haller was vilified by the media and the courthouses for treating a witness so hard that he killed himself on the stand. But his reputation was saved by a three part series in the Times headlined “The Trials of an Innocent Man”. Haller came out looking good. This allowed him to communicate better with his daughter and he started visiting her in Ventura and watching her ride in equestrian competitions. |
Nothing about being vilified by the media or eventual redemption. Hayley does forgive him though. She is thinking about law school and being a prosecutor.
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The California Bar has an ongoing investigation of Haller on whether or not La Cosse was of clear mind when he signed the waiver of appearance. La Cosse signed a notarized statement attesting to Haller’s legal acumen and recounting how he knowingly signed the waiver. |
No investigation regarding signing of the waiver. |
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Haller tutored Sly Fulgino Jr. on the Moya habeas petition and the cartel murderer’s life sentence was vacated. But upon his release Moya was immediately taken into custody by immigration and deported to Mexico. |
Nothing about how Moya was eventually released. But he is later shown in a vehicle talking on the phone to Haller.
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Agent James Marco slipped out of the courthouse and remained at large. His face is on wanted posters in federal buildings where he used to work and is the subject of grand jury investigations. Marco is believed to have sided with the Sinaloa Cartel. It is possible he worked to put Moya in prison for life on orders from Marco’s bosses in Mexico. |
It is eventually known that De Marco protected some cartels while investigating and prosecuting other cartels. |
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Haller got an email with the subject line “Saludos Del Fuego; it contained a 15 second video showing a beaten and burned corpse hanging from a tree. Haller thinks it is Marco. |
Haller gets an email sent to his office showing a dead De Marco hanging by the neck with a snake around his neck. Right after he sees the image, Moya calls him and asks him if he likes his present. He also assures that the other cartels will not bother him in the future.
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Earl’s murder remains unsolved and is the subject of an ongoing grand jury |
Nothing about any investigation to the hit and run that killed Eddie. |
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This takes place in the book “The Law of Innocence” which will be adapted into season four of The Lincoln Lawyer. |
As Haller is leaving the restaurant celebration, he see visions of Eddie, Gloria and his father.
Haller is pulled over shortly after leaving the restaurant. He has no rear license plate on his old Lincoln. The officer sees blood leaking from the trunk. Haller refuses to open the trunk and is arrested. The officer opens the trunk and they see the corpse of Sammy Scales.
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