Factual error: In any of the courtroom scenes where you are looking at the judge, the American flag is on the wrong side. The flag should be to the right side of the judge. This was confirmed by IHA
Factual error: Rankin Fitch's "team" has Juror Millie Dupree's husband Hoppy Dupree arrested as part of their plan to control Millie's vote. If you listen to the damaging evidence from Hoppy, he is saying "I can help you get that county permit, blah, blah, blah" This is supposed to take place in Louisiana, where there are no counties only parishes. This is a hold over from the John Grisham book that the movie is based on. That story took place in Mississippi where there are counties. (01:03:25)
Factual error: The film has the Civil District Court for Orleans Parish located in the French Quarter. Actually, that courthouse is home to the State Appellate Court and the State Supreme Court. The Civil District Court is located in a film-unfriendly section of town, on Loyola Avenue.
Factual error: When the wire transfer is shown coming to the Cayman Islands bank, the computer begins to count up to 15 million, then the scene switches to a printer printing the report of the transaction then back to the computer finishing the transfer count to 15 million. The computer would not print the details of a wire transfer until the wire transfer was complete.
Factual error: Nick Easter is being sequestered for the jury and comments that the Sherriff's office is across the street from the Mall on Esplanade Ave. The Esplanade Mall is actually in Kenner, which is in Jefferson Parish, but has its own Police Dept. The Kenner PD is nowhere near the Mall. The Jefferson Parish Sherriff's office does not have a station in Kenner.
Chosen answer: Hackman's team was closely monitoring what Hoffman was doing in regards to the tampering, as evidenced by their taping of his conversation with Weiss when he decides not to pay. Cusack and Weiss probably anticipated this so were forced to offer the deal to Hoffman to keep up the illusion.