Cher, in preparing for her lead role as the film's central character Kathleen Riley, spent considerable time with the Public Defender's office in Washington, D.C., with many of their attorneys, and attended several trials in District of Columbia area courts. Cher said: "I sat in on a real murder trial, and it's enormously different from anything I'd ever seen in film or on television. I went to jail and spent time with the convicted men, and that was an amazing experience. It's so strange, because I look at these guys and they're all somebody's child, or brother, or father, but they've all just gone the wrong way."
Dennis Quaid took a month before filming to talk and spend time with Capitol Hill lobbyists, as well as jurors and judges, to prepare for his part as a Capitol Hill lobbyist.
The film's leading lady Cher said of her casting, performance, and characterization: "I read the script and really, really liked it, but I was also very intimidated until I jumped into it. I know nothing about the law, so I chose to play the aspects of Kathleen's character that I knew, that I could relate to, and then the legal terms and language just fell into place. I used them as if I'd been using them all my life. The easy part was being in front of the jury. The hard part was acting well enough to make people believe you know what you're doing. You have to make them believe that you have been a student, gone to college, gone to law school, and have been doing this for eight years. That's the difficult part".
Although Liam Neeson is right handed, in this movie he uses his left hand to write on a chalkboard to present the crude handwriting of someone who isn't used to it.