Nicole needs a better lawyer

The show: Days of Our Lives
The episode: The one which aired yesterday, January 6, 2010, the latest in the baby-switching saga.
What happened: Nicole, sporting artificially black hair, is in trial, with a black lawyer as her defense attorney. Her lawyer begins to ask for leniency but the judge rudely cuts him off. Then, several witnesses talk about what an awful, dishonest woman Nicole is. The judge thanks the witnesses and comments that no one has said anything positive about Nicole. Then this guy bursts into court, and soon he's testifying that Nicole loved Sydney as if Sydney was her own flesh-and-blood baby, and that no sentence the judge could hand down could be worse than what Nicole is already feeling.
Why it makes no sense: Do the writers watch any legal dramas? There are still plenty to choose from these days, even as the crime scene investigation genre has caused a decrease in lawyer dramas. Apparently, the Days of Our Lives writers seem to think that in a trial, the witnesses just get on the stand and testify free-style, without any guidance from counsel for their side and without any cross-examination from opposing counsel, and that judges are in the habit of thanking witnesses for their testimony.
Worse still, Nicole's lawyer seems to be completely asleep at the wheel. Not only does he fail to cross-examine any of the witnesses for the prosecution, it doesn't occur to him to round up just one positive character witness for Nicole. He must be one of those overworked, underpaid public defenders. But why couldn't Nicole get a high-priced power lawyer? I can believe that E. J. wouldn't want to spring for such a lawyer (because it wouldn't occur to him that a guilty verdict would be more solid if there's no grounds for appeal on the basis of inadequate counsel), but why doesn't it occur to the judge that such a high-profile defendant needs a high-profile lawyer, and not some nincompoop throwing in the towel?
Of course I understand that the conventions of the soap opera are different than those of the legal drama. The one positive character witness barging into the courtroom at just the right moment is a plot device right at home in the soap opera. But by making the incompetent defense lawyer a black man, the writers or the producers have chosen the worst time to add diversity to the guest cast.