The misunderstanding between Vincent Gambini and Judge Haller regarding the two "youts" was in fact a real conversation between Joe Pesci and director Jonathan Lynn. Lynn, who is English, at first had a hard time understanding Pesci's pronounced New York accent. He decided that the routine was quite funny and put it in the film.

Despite their characters clashing in this film, Joe Pesci who plays Vinny and Fred Gwynne who plays Judge Chamberlin Haller were actually good friends in real life until Gwynne's passing on July 2, 1993.

When Vinny is trying to explain his "real name" to Judge Haller, he knocks over the judge's chess board. This was accidental but director Jonathan Lynn thought it was so funny and authentic he decided to leave it in the film.

Director Jonathan Lynn actually has a law degree and insisted the film's legal proceedings be realistic. In fact, many attorneys and law professors have praised the film for its accurate depiction of trial strategy and courtroom procedure, especially with regards to presenting expert witnesses at trial. In fact, the film has been screened at some law schools to illustrate courtroom procedures.

Gambini's cross examination of Sam Tipton (grits), Ernie Crane (dirty windows), and Constance Riley (glasses) represents technically competent impeachment of the prosecutor's witnesses. Overall the film does an excellent job, though abridged and succinct, of representing the criminal judicial process.

Continuity

When Vinny's car is first shown going through town, it says, "Cadillac" on the grill. When the car pulls into the parking space to examine the tires, it doesn't say "Cadillac" on the grill.

Near the end of the movie when the case is won Mona Lisa Vito's nails change color from silver to red, then back to silver.

At the end, when they're all walking out, the woman with jeans and a red sweater with a black circle on it walks out twice.

In the opening scenes, the trees in the park across from the courthouse are completely bare, not even a sign of buddings. Even if the trial takes 2 weeks, at the end of the film the trees are completely full of grown green leaves, unlikely for a short period of time.

When Vinny goes to lunch during the recess, the time on the digital clock outside the window of Dave's Barbeque reads 12:55. It later reads 4:25 after only a couple of minutes of conversation with Ms. Vito.



Factual errors

While judges do make errors once in a while, it is practically impossible that any judge would overrule Vinny's objection to George Wilbur's testimony. To do so would almost certainly cause a conviction to be overturned at the appellate level.

Vinny is a lawyer licensed to practice law in the state of New York and not Alabama. While his lies about his career would give the judge reason to allow him to practice pro hac vice, his defense team would need to include someone who is licensed to practice in Alabama to make a motion in court to allow him to practice for the trial.

When the prosecutor asks Mona for the second time whether she had ever worked as a mechanic, she responds by nodding. A judge wouldn't let that pass. He'd tell her to answer out loud, for the record and for the jury to hear.

The black lady on the jury (seen when Trotter talks of "our ancestors from England") also serves Vinny in the caf? during the lunch recess before his presentation of evidence. If she's on the jury, she would not have been allowed to leave the court to work, and least of all to serve the defense attorney.

Although probably staged this way for humorous effect, a real police line-up would not have people with wide discrepancies between height, weight, build and facial features. Real police line-ups are made up of the suspect(s) and people who look similar to the suspect in height, weight, build, skin color, hair color and general facial features in an attempt to improve the reliability of a positive identification by a witness, though the process is still highly fallible.



Incorrectly regarded as goofs

In the scene where Vinny is telling Billy why he should keep him as his lawyer, he pulls out the deck of cards. At first the card is the ace of spades. He flips it over in his hand and then it is a joker. However, this is a card trick to back up Vinny's words that "Nobody pulls the wool over the eyes of a Gambini."

When Trotter is giving his opening statement, he describes the car as having a white top while in reality, the convertible top was down and any eye witness would not be able to see the top in a completely folded position. It is rather possible though that the other car did have its top up.

When Lisa is being challenged as a witness by the Prosecutor, he asks her "does ... make you an expert on tire marks?" It has been asserted that, at the time, he has no idea that the (new) line of defense will be based on the tire marks... Vinnie may not have said that when he called Lisa as a witness, but he did say that he was calling her to rebut the testimony of George Wilbur... given the substance of Wilbur's testimony, that should have made it obvious to Trotter what he was planning on asking her about.



Revealing mistakes

Joe Pesci's stretch metal clips for his face to make him look younger are visible throughout the film just slightly hiding in his sideburns and even shine depending on the light.

When Vinny hears the owl screech while he and Lisa are in Trotter's cabin, he grabs a pistol from a gun case, opens the cylinder and snaps it shut with a flick of his wrist, however, it is clear that there are no bullets in the cylinder.

When Vinnie has his final confrontation with J.T. in front of the store, He takes a flying leap through the air as he swings with his fist. As they both come to a landing, we can see them "bounce", indicating that they hit the stunt mattress.

At Trotter's office, the computer monitor behind him changes from authentic to fake during the initial meeting between Vinny and Trotter.

After Lisa bails Vinny out of jail the first time, they go to lunch at a roadside BBQ spot that has picnic tables. Lisa takes a sip from her Coke but the drink is clear not dark indicating that Lisa is sipping on water.



Audio/visual unsynchronized

After examining a witness, Vinny turns around and goes to Mona where they slap hands. They obviously miss but the sound of a slap is heard anyway.



Crew or equipment visible

Reflected in Vinny and Mona's sunglasses when they first appear after getting out of the car.



Errors in geography

This film was made in Jasper and Putnam Counties in Georgia, nowhere near the Alabama line. On the highway scenes the highway signs have been changed to Alabama signs but for in town scenes, which is actually Monticello, Georgia the signs are still the actual Georgia highway signs.



Boom mic visible

During the final courtroom scene as Mona Lisa Vito is being dismissed from the stand by the judge, the shadow of a boom mic can be seen moving around on the wall above the judge.



Character error

When Sheriff Farley gives his testimony, he says "I asked him if he did it, and he said 'I shot the clerk' I asked him again, and again he said 'I shot the clerk". This is a lie, since the sheriff first asked "When'd you shoot him?" and then, "At what point did you shoot the clerk?"

The pool hustler "J.T." is called "J.G." by one of his flunkies during the nighttime $200 rolled-up wad of bills scene with Vinny.