This peeve isn't unique to Lois and Clark, but it irks me when the writers completely ignore the way actual systems work. The justice system has already been mentioned. (A Murder One trial in two weeks. Yeah, right.) Superman Returns pulled an even more glaring error: Lex Luthor was supposedly released because the appeals court called Superman as a witness and he didn't show. Appeals courts don't call witnesses.
In that same vein, I can't stand the Smart Kids episode. It took me a year to get my foster care license, but Lois Lane, a reporter with no training and a clear conflict of interest, is able to take a child home--a child who apparently just hangs out in Lois's apartment all day while she's at work, BTW--on the non-custodial mother's say-so. Lois even has a snarky little line to the effect that 'just because she doesn't have custody doesn't mean that she has no say-so over where her children go.' Actually, that's precisely what it means.
