You don’t have to take it from me. There’s a good reason that Bread – the 70s band that virtually invented California soft rock with unforgettable hits like “Baby I’m-A Want You” and “Make it With You” – hit #4 on the Billboard Chart in the spring of 1971 with “If.” (“If a picture paints a thousand words . . . “)

Pictures do, in fact, paint a thousand words. It is a universal truth. Images are evocative; they engage the viewer and hold her attention; they can convey abstract concepts more efficiently, and often better, than words; they can level disparities in literacy, language, and intellect. For us here at A2L, the adage is not a subject of mere lip service, but an article of faith – a conviction that your presence here signifies that we share.

All that being the case, why aren’t you all insisting upon having me, your litigation graphics and persuasion expert – or someone like me – present at your mock trial and focus group exercises? You certainly should. Just as the purpose of a mock trial or focus group exercise is to test-drive the arguments that the lawyers intend to present verbally at trial, it is also a crucial opportunity to assess how well the litigation graphics visually echo and even amplify, those arguments to create winning impressions.

To create those impressions, you’ve brought together a team of professionals to produce a compelling factual, legal and visual presentation and to assess the impact of that presentation on your likely jurors. If you believe, among other things, in the power of compelling visuals to sharpen the focus and boost the potency of your arguments and themes, then leaving your litigation graphics consultant home is one big mistake.

Just as we coach you to integrate litigation graphics in ways that avoid divided juror attention, we counsel against splitting the attention of your team and diluting the quality of its members’ observations by doubling up their responsibilities at mock exercises. To assure maximum performance, let every member of the team serve his or her highest and best use – think Indy 500 pit crew. This includes a principal member of your litigation graphics team: let him or her focus squarely on the jurors’ engagement with and reaction to the visuals.

With their words, gestures, body language, attention or disinterest, mock jurors tell us how well our litigation graphics accomplished their intended purposes – what worked and what didn’t. They can tell us what they understood and what left them confused. However they “tell” us what they think, if the jurors do not exhibit the desired response, it is the time to change the graphics to evoke a better one. Who better to pose carefully tailored questions in real time to gauge the visuals’ punch or to scrutinize and take away for productive use in reworked visuals these crucial real-time impressions than the professional responsible for creating them?

Testing the strengths and weakness of your case is a fundamental purpose of mock trial and focus group exercises. So much of what the format unlocks is intimately tied to being present in real time. In that respect, nothing beats watching real people grapple with the real issues and actually engage with, study, and even poke holes in the real mock trial graphics. It makes the most of the exercise and is the best way to ensure continuity as the team takes the litigation graphics to the next level for trial.  Hearing about it secondhand is no substitute. Not even financially. Since the recordings of the exercises can be stopped, rewound and restarted when studied after-the-fact, any significant cost savings intended by leaving the litigation consultant behind are seldom realized.

Since a picture paints a thousand words, let’s practice what we preach: insist that your litigation graphics consultants watch your mock trial and focus-group exercises, rather than simply read about them.

Other free A2L Consulting resources related to mock trials, focus groups, and litigation graphics consultants:

• Why You Should Pressure-Test Your Trial Graphics Well Before Trial
• 5 Ways to Win Your Trial by Losing Your Mock Trial
• 9 Things That Define the Best Litigation Graphics
• 7 Questions You Must Ask Your Mock Jury About Litigation Graphics
• Free Webinar: PowerPoint Litigation Graphics - Winning by Design™
• 13 Reasons Law Firm Litigation Graphics Departments Have Bad Luck
• Trending: Mock Trial Testing of Litigation Graphics AND Arguments
• 3 Observations by a Graphic Artist Turned Litigation Graphics Artist
• 21 Reasons a Litigator Is Your Best Litigation Graphics Consultant
• 6 Triggers That Prompt a Call to Your Litigation Consultant
• 11 Small Projects You Probably Don't Think Litigation Consultants Do
• 11 Things Your Colleagues Pay Litigation Consultants to Do
• 12 Reasons Litigation Graphics are More Complicated Than You Think
• Litigation Graphics: It's Not a Beauty Contest
• 11 Ways to Start Right With Your Litigation Graphics Team
• 16 PowerPoint Litigation Graphics You Won't Believe Are PowerPoint
• Presentation Graphics: Why The President Is Better Than You
• Using Litigation Graphics in Bench Trials: How Different Is It From Jury Trials?
• 12 Reasons Bullet Points Are Bad (in Trial Graphics or Anywhere)
• 5 Ways That a Mock Trial Informs and Shapes Voir Dire Questions
• Font Matters - A Trial Graphics Consultant's Trick to Overcome Bias
• 6 Studies That Support Litigation Graphics in Courtroom Presentations
• 8 Videos and 7 Articles About the Science of Persuasion
• Please Pretty Up These Litigation Graphics
• How Long Before Trial Should I Begin Preparing My Trial Graphics?