The other day I received my "Certificate of Registration". I copyrighted my screenplay and treatment of my "Personal Injury" TV series. I'm so excited I scanned it in and have posted it here. I've never been copyrighted before.
Of course this is silly. The odds of success on a TV series are slim to none, and all I really did was pay a fee ($30?) and fill out a form. But I'm excited nonetheless.
The idea is based on my experience as a personal injury defense lawyer for Allstate. Unlike all the criminal law shows, this show has both drama and humor. Personal injury cases can be very funny. The pilot is about a case I defended where the plaintiff had suffered a testicle injury. That's just funny, and it gets more funny if you get all the details, both about the injury itself and how people reacted to the case in our office and in court.
Of course you can't have the same degree of drama in a car accident case. The stakes just aren't as high. No one's going to jail, and generally no one died. Sometimes the amount of money involved is enough to make the stakes seem high, but it's just not as big a deal as murder.
I'm getting into all these other things (screenwriting, web publishing), and occasionally talk about how I won't have to be a lawyer any more if this works out. But I like being a lawyer. I know so many lawyers who are unhappy with their lot in life, who don't enjoy their work. And here I am, happy, and even passionate about my cases, and yet I'm still talking about getting out.
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