The Evidence Against Mickey Haller In The Lincoln Lawyer Season 4's Murder Trial Explained -

Mickey Haller’s murder trial is set to make The Lincoln Lawyer season 4 one of the most anticipated television events of 2025. Haller is usually the lawyer defending other people who’ve been put on trial for crimes that he’s seeking to prove they didn’t commit. Now, however, it’s Mickey himself whose innocence is on the line, following his arrest for murder at the end of season 3. Haller’s arrest was a shocking twist in the story of the series, particularly as its central hero didn’t seem to know anything about what had happened.

Faced with The Lincoln Lawyer’s toughest ever prosecutor, “Death Row” Dana Berg, the odds of Mickey securing his innocence don’t look good. Besides the caliber of the lawyer he’s up against, there’s physical and circumstantial evidence stacked against him. Even if Mickey couldn’t have committed the crime from our point of view, whoever framed him did an excellent job of making it look like he did it. What’s more, it’s not enough for Mickey to prove that he’s not guilty. To save his own reputation as a lawyer, he has to demonstrate his innocence by finding the real murderer.

Mickey Is On Trial For The Murder Of Sam Scales In The Lincoln Lawyer Season 4

Scales Was A Longtime Client Of Mickey Haller And His Legal Team

In the upcoming season of The Lincoln Lawyer, Mickey Haller is going to stand trial for the murder of Sam Scales. A small-time con man who was one of Haller’s clients over the course of several years, Scales first appeared in The Lincoln Lawyer’s second season as an associate of Mickey’s who was able to help him with another case, in exchange for the writing off of legal fees. He reappeared in the seventh episode of season 3, which was the last time we saw him alive.

Mickey Haller is on trial for the gravest of crimes, which in many cases can result in a guilty defendant being sentenced to death.

The Lincoln Lawyer season 4 is raising the stakes higher than at any other point in the show’s history by putting its protagonist on trial for the gravest of crimes, which in many cases can result in a guilty defendant being sentenced to death. Mickey is going to need all the help he can get from his legal team, his ex-wife Maggie, and two of The Lincoln Lawyer’s new characters, to win this case and avoid a penalty which could effectively – or literally – end his life.

Sam Scales Was Discovered Dead In The Trunk Of Mickey’s Car At The End Of Season 3

A Police Officer Arrested Haller And Found The Body Of Scales In The Trunk Of His Lincoln

Mickey is standing trial for the murder of Sam Scales because the evidence against him is overwhelming. In an unexpected twist at the end of The Lincoln Lawyer season 3, Mickey’s famous Lincoln convertible was pulled over by a police officer because it was missing its license plate, unbeknownst to Mickey. The officer then noticed what appeared to be blood dripping from the back bumper of the car, and instructed Mickey to open the trunk. When he refused, he was arrested. What happened next was a stunning turn of events.

Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in The Lincoln Lawyer season 2, episode 4, looking annoyed as Mickey

The Lincoln Lawyer Season 3 Timeline Explained

While Netflix’s The Lincoln Lawyer season 3 jumps around in time, each component of the timeline is important to the overall narrative and message.

Upon opening the trunk of Mickey’s car, the police officer found the bloodied corpse of Sam Scales in there. This horrifying spectacle also came as a shock to Mickey himself. By the time we see him at the start of The Lincoln Lawyer season 4, he’ll have been charged with murder, and his life will have been completely turned upside down.

Luckily, his ex-wife Maggie is returning to LA to rival Dana Berg’s case against him and help him prove his innocence. Nevertheless, it’s hard to argue with a dead body in the back of your car, especially when you’re implicated by circumstantial evidence, too.

Scales Owed Haller Money For Previous Legal Cases Before His Death

His Debts To Mickey Were A Recurring Problem In Seasons 2 And 3

If Lincoln Lawyer season 4 prosecutor Dana Berg is searching for a motive for Mickey Haller to have murdered Sam Scales, she’ll find it in the tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid legal bills that Scales owed Haller’s business. This issue was raised when Scales first appeared in The Lincoln Lawyer in the season 2 episode “Withdrawal” and again in the season 3 episode “Relevance,” by which point Scales’ debt had only gotten larger.

A police officer looks at Mickey in The Lincoln Lawyer season 3

Mickey Haller Has A New Ally Ahead Of His Murder Trial According To This Lincoln Lawyer Season 4 Update

Mickey Haller will The Lincoln Lawyer’s season 4 behind bars. But all isn’t lost, particularly with a new character helping protect him on the inside.

Mickey Haller doesn’t seem to us like the sort of person who’d murder a client for failing to pay their legal fees, but the jury in his trial aren’t to know that, and Dana Berg will do her best to paint him otherwise. Unfortunately for Mickey, his own words seem to have implicated him as harboring this very motive for Scales’ murder.

Mickey Threatened Sam’s Life If He Didn’t Pay Up In Season 3, Episode 7

There Were 4 Other Witnesses When He Made This Threat

Sam Scales talks to Lorna in The Lincoln Lawyer season 2

In The Lincoln Lawyer’s season 3 episode “Relevance”, Sam Scales won a fraud trial, meaning he got to keep the money he’d made through embezzling charity funding. When Scales suggested that he couldn’t pay Mickey Haller and Lorna Crane for winning him the case, Mickey responded, “No, no, no, Sam. If you don’t pay us, you’re dead. Alright?” This threat may have seemed like a harmless figure of speech at the time, but in light of what happened to Sam and where he ended up three episodes later, it looks pretty incriminating for Mickey.

Evidence Against Mickey Haller In The Lincoln Lawyer

Episode(s)

Sam Scales’ dead body found by a police officer in the trunk of Mickey’s car

“The Gods of Guilt” (season 3, episode 10)

Scales’ blood dripping from the back bumper of the car

“The Gods of Guilt” (season 3, episode 10)

Mickey refused to open his trunk for the police officer, leading to his arrest

“The Gods of Guilt” (season 3, episode 10)

Sam Scales owed Mickey Haller tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid legal bills

“Withdrawal” (season 2, episode 6)

“Relevance” (season 3, episode 7)

Mickey Haller threatened Sam’s life, telling him, “If you don’t pay us you’re dead,” in front of four witnesses

“Relevance” (season 3, episode 7)

Apart from Sam Scales himself, there were four witnesses present when Mickey threatened his life in relation to his non-payment of legal fees. The witnesses are the three employees on Mickey’s legal team, Lorna Crane, Izzy Letts, and Cisco Wojciechowski, and his law intern, Jessica. Just after he makes the threat, the camera pans to Jessica looking frightened. It’s safe to assume that she’s going to be called as a witness for the prosecution during Mickey’s trial at some point in The Lincoln Lawyer season 4, to give her account of Mickey threatening Sam’s life.

In The Lincoln Lawyer Season 4, Mickey Must Prove His Innocence By Finding The Real Killer

A Not Guilty Verdict Alone Won’t Be Enough To Save Mickey’s Reputation

The Lincoln Lawyer season 4 is based on the book The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly, which makes an important point about the situation Mickey Haller is now confronted with. “For every man not guilty of a crime there is a man out there who is,” the novel reads. “And to prove true innocence the guilty man must be found and exposed to the world.”

For Mickey Haller to get the result he needs from his murder trial, he must go even further than securing a not guilty verdict. If he goes free simply because his guilt couldn’t be proven, a cloud of suspicion will forever hang over his name, affecting the rest of his life and career.

Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Mickey Haller and Titus Welliver as Harry Bosch

The Lincoln Lawyer Season 4 Might Miss Harry Bosch, But Mickey Can Still Win Without Him

The Lincoln Lawyer has never needed Harry Bosch as much as it will in season 4, but Mickey Haller will have to manage his murder trial with him.

Real freedom both inside and outside the justice system will only be secured if Mickey manages to prove that he was framed, and find the real culprit responsible for the murder of Sam Scales, who’s set him up. It will be fascinating to see how Mickey pursues his dual objectives of securing a not guilty verdict and proving his innocence in The Lincoln Lawyer season 4. The evidence might appear to be against him, but we can be sure that Mickey has a few ideas up his sleeve to set the record straight.