By David Andre
Last month we discussed the importance of meeting with your trial technician early in the litigation process. This month we’ll discuss interesting and innovative ways to present dynamic evidence in trial, and how to use these methods to grab your jury’s attention — and hold it.
When you’re in trial, your goal is to provide the jury with the information they need to make an informed decision and also to prove to them that your point of view is correct. What you don’t want is for the jury’s attention to wander while you’re presenting your case. It’s one thing to provide the information. It’s quite another to ensure they’re paying attention. You don’t want your information to be so technical that the jury doesn’t understand, so there are challenges in making sure they actually absorb the necessary details.
One method is to make the evidence interactive, therefore more interesting. Many people are visual learners, especially since everyone owns a smartphone and tablet these days. Instead of just going over each event in your client’s timeline, why not actually create a customized timeline graphic so that they can follow along? Perhaps something that illustrates just how much time has passed between each event? Rather than rolling through the dates and events, why not pull up a customized timeline so that they can visualize the timing of each event? It can be zoomed in, scrolled through, and even highlighted. You can even make a poster board to place on an easel for easy reference throughout the proceeding. The jury has enough to occupy their minds with all the facts you’re presenting them; help them remember it all with a timeline graphic.
Have MRI or CT images? Instead of just pulling up the same static image over and over while having your medical expert explain where it came from, why not pull up the actual MRI and have your expert explain the “slices of bread” metaphor while scrolling through all the images and pointing out any irregularities? The doctor can do all of this from the witness stand with a laptop in front of him and the right technology setup. He can even take the laser pointer and show everyone in the room exactly what he finds important in the images. It’s something they don’t see every day, and it shows the inner workings of the human body. This can be a very powerful tool and is very effective in keeping the jury’s attention.
In a recent case, we pulled up an MRA image, and the doctor rotated the reconstructed MRA to 360 degrees, clearly showing blockages to a major blood vessel in the brain that directly caused the patient’s stroke and subsequent death. It’s easy to show the jury a single slice of an image, but to show enough of it for them to clearly understand what they’re viewing is a much more powerful approach.
There’s always another new technology emerging that can be used in trial. And while you don’t necessarily want to use all of them and overdo the technology when you don’t need it, the trick is to figure out how best to utilize the right technology to impress your jury and keep them paying attention and interested in your case.
Reach out to a trial consultant who can help you decide which methods work best for whichever piece of evidence you want to show. They’ve seen it all before, so they can be a valuable tool in helping you to present your case.
In the next post, I’ll discuss customized Power Point presentations for opening and closing arguments.
