Defendant lobby

Defendant lobbies are the rooms in the District Court that house defendants and their defense teams. They are used before and after trials, as well as during recesses, to discuss the trial and to prepare the defense's case. Defendant lobbies are soundproof to prevent people from overhearing the defense teams inside.

Except for Turnabout Succession, the player never had the chance to examine a lobby or move away from it in the Saiban games. This is because examinations could only occur during investigations.

Notable defendant lobbies

 * Defendant Lobby No. 1
 * Defendant Lobby No. 2

Defendant Lobbies 1 and 2 are especially notable for being involved in two incidents, one a double murder occurring in 2011 and another Zak Gramarye's disappearance in 2019.

Double murder
A woman going under the pseudonym of Calisto Yew, a mole planted into the Yatagarasu working for the Cohdopian smuggling ring, hired Mack Rell to kill Deid Mann, and acted as his defense attorney when he was caught on camera. She told him that he would be acquitted if he claimed to be the Yatagarasu at first, but then pointed to the case's prosecutor, Byrne Faraday, as the real Yatagarasu during his trial. After he did so, Faraday interrogated Rell in Defendant Lobby No. 2. "Yew" came in, stabbed Faraday with the "knife" form of the Yatagarasu's Key, then had Rell play the surveillance video of his murder before shooting him and opening a window. She then left, ran into Tyrell Badd and went into Lobby No. 1 and talked, spilling her strong perfume to make Badd open the window. When the gunshot that killed Mann was played, Badd heard it, discovered the bodies, and was led to believe that the murder had happened just then, giving Yew an alibi. Nonetheless, Faraday's replacement Miles Edgeworth exposed Yew as the killer, though she escaped with the Yatagarasu's Key.
 * Main article: Turnabout Reminiscence

A magician's trick

 * Main article: Turnabout Succession

During Phoenix Wright's last trial, when he was found to have presented forged evidence, his client Zak Gramarye suddenly disappeared from the courtroom. He escaped into Defendant Lobby No. 1, while his daughter Trucy used her gigantic puppet Mr. Hat to lure the bailiff into Defendant Lobby No. 2, throwing him off while Zak escaped.