Forty-five states may have mandatory continuing legal education (CLE) requirements for attorneys – but all litigators and litigation support staff, wherever they are located, have a duty to stay informed and maintain their skills. Whether you are a first chair litigator or a litigation paralegal, given the pace of change in trial technology and trial strategy, it can be a challenge just to keep up with the latest trends.
This article is coauthored by A2L Consulting’s CEO, Kenneth J. Lopez, J.D., a trial graphics and trial consulting expert and David H. Schwartz, Ph.D. of Innovative Science Solutions. Dr. Schwartz has extensive experience designing programs that critically review the scientific foundation for product development and major mass tort litigation. For 20 years, he has worked with the legal community evaluating product safety and defending products such as welding rods, cellular telephones, breast implants, wound care products, dietary supplements, general healthcare products, chemical exposures (e.g., hydraulic fracturing components), and a host of pharmaceutical agents (including antidepressants, dermatologics, anti-malarials, anxiolytics, antipsychotics, and diet drugs).
As the second quarter comes to a close, summer temps are headed into the triple digits on the East Coast, the Supreme Court heads into recess after releasing the big healthcare decision this morning (actual healthcare opinion here in PDF) and vacation season kicks into full swing (with August being the month with fewest trials in the Federal Courts). The end of a fiscal quarter also means we will soon be drawing for a free iPad for one of our lucky subscribers (we do it every quarter). As we look back over Q2, let's take a moment to review the most popular Litigation Consulting Report blog articles of the quarter. I hope that you didn't miss one of these, but just in case you did, here they are with the most popular one first. Also, if you missed the release of A2L's BIG Litigation E-Book yesterday, you'll want to download a copy of that valuable 75-page book packed with litigation tactics (complimentary for subscribers to this blog).
In a previous article I told you about five surprises I found in moving from my previous position as an IP litigator to my current position as a litigation consultant. After a few more weeks on the job and a bit more day-to-day experience as Managing Director, Litigation Consulting for A2L, I find that there is another big surprise: the amount of thought, time and work that goes into each and every trial graphic.
I want our readers to be among the first to hear some good news and download a free copy of a useful guidebook. A2L Consulting was voted a Best Demonstrative Evidence Provider by the readers of the National Law Journal. We are very proud. It's the second time in less than a year we have been honored with a similar distinction. At the end of 2011, the readers of LegalTimes also voted and named A2L the Best Demonstrative Evidence provider. I believe that this guide just published by the National Law Journal is a valuable one to keep. We all know one thing about litigation: you only get one shot to get it right, and thus it is critical to hire the right support team. The NLJ's best of guide is a good guidebook for anyone looking to hire a litigation support firm or other legal services firm. Frankly, it's a credible reader-driven survey that's been missing for a long time. I think the NLJ's work is especially reliable and useful since over 450 companies were nominated and votes were only tallied for known members of the legal industry. Below is a link to download the guidebook. I hope you'll take a moment to leave a comment below or ask a question. Thank you for your support of A2L Consulting and The Litigation Consulting Report.
In Part 1 of this article, we discussed how to use litigation consultants to win a case when there are no budget constraints. Here in Part 2, we tackle the opposite end of the budget spectrum: how to best use litigation consultants when budget is severely constrained. The good news is that in any case that has more than $1 million at stake or is a possible example of pattern litigation, there is a litigation consulting strategy that can fit the budget and deliver high value, regardless of budget. While every case has different needs, and there is a big difference between bench and jury trials, here is a prescription for utilizing litigation consultants in a tight budget. The primary cost difference between a small litigation budget and a large litigation budget will be the amount of time spent on testing and varying strategic approaches to the case. In a tight budget scenario, rather than relying on feedback from mock jurors and judges to help guide which themes to emphasize and the best ways to explain elements of the case, you will likely have to rely heavily on gut instinct. Of course, that is not always a bad thing.
At A2L, we have the privilege of working with experts in many diverse and highly technical fields, such as software patents, polymer patents, semiconductor patents, medical device design, environmental remediation, construction, financial disclosure, economic damages, transportation safety, corporate management and many more.
After a year of providing expert commentary on trials, litigation graphics, jury research, courtroom hot seat best practices and similar topics, I think it’s time to take stock.
In our work as trial graphics specialists, many cases require us to prepare a demonstrative exhibit that simplifies a complex process. This could be a scientific or technical matter such as how environmental remediation is conducted, how surgical mesh is used, or how data backups are migrated, or it could be a business or governmental matter such as how a form of bond obligation is created and sold or how a government contract is bid and awarded.
Whenever a litigation team presents a document in a graphic way to the jury or other fact-finder at trial, there is an occasion for a document call-out. A “document call-out” is a term of art that means taking a document that is in evidence at trial and highlighting some key portion of it for easy reading and to draw the viewer's attention to the key language.
We have previously discussed how valuable timelines used as legal graphics can be in the presentation of facts at trial. As we have noted, most cases involve the placing of events along some sort of time sequence, and timelines, if they are well designed, can give jurors a straightforward introduction to the facts of a case. In fact, we recently released an e-book describing best practices for the use of timelines and legal graphics at trial.
A recent study about the best use of litigation graphics during trial reveals some new insights. This study was conducted by Persuasion Strategies, a litigation consulting firm that is part of Holland & Hart, a law firm. The study team was led by Ken Broda-Bahm, a leader in the art of visual presentation in the courtroom. With a doctorate in speech communication that emphasizes rhetoric and legal communication, Dr. Broda-Bahm is a genuine expert in jury consulting.
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