Lights! Camera! Action! Verdict! A Trial Team's Responsibility to Visually Entertain

May 1, 2004
By A2L Consulting

Part 1 of 3 (jump to part 2 here or part 3 here)

Your trial team is litigating a patent case involving the complex inner workings of a massive piece of machinery, or the detailed corporate structures of competing businesses making antitrust allegations, or the interaction of chemicals unfamiliar to the general public in a product liability matter. You know it is necessary to transmit these concepts to your jury in a clear, persuasive manner. You know that demonstrative evidence can be your best ally in the battle to convey the strengths of your case. Will you choose to have your expert witness testify aided only by an oversized pad of paper and a marker? Or will you develop compelling demonstrative evidence or a short animation that allows jurors to see the subject machinery in action and then dissects each piece of the inner workings, or that lays out departments within corporations in outlined, size- and color-coded fashion, or that simulates the effects of the interaction of the chemicals?

Your demonstrative evidence presentations for trial can no longer be an afterthought that simply mirrors your oral presentation. It is your obligation to your client to entertain jurors, as they are accustomed to being entertained in so many other aspects of their lives.

The legal community is generally aware of the importance of using demonstrative evidence at trial to aid in explaining difficult concepts and helping jurors retain information. Today, we live in a whirlwind world of 30-second television sound bites, news summaries in convenient one-sentence formats and information that has been distilled to its essence for our easy absorption. We are becoming accustomed to an “experience economy” in which the method of information delivery is as important as the substance of the information being delivered. Because jurors are in the habit of receiving information this way in every other aspect of their lives, it is now the duty of the trial team to represent its client by ensuring the jury is entertained as it is being informed.

Modern Television Viewing Practices

We increasingly rely on television rather than other mediums for both information and entertainment. For those who do read, the newspaper with the largest circulation in America (USA Today) makes the heaviest use of color photographs and graphics. Jurors get their news, politics, entertainment, and history from “people paid to arrange and rearrange the truth in its most… convenient pose.” In the world outside the courtroom, jurors’ ideas are being guided by talk show hosts, captained by legal and political pundits, inspired by movie-of-the week actors, and educated by public relations experts.

The consequence in the world of litigation is that if you expect to jurors to pay attention to facts and be open to persuasion, your message must be delivered in a format that is familiar, trustworthy and that keeps their attention focused. You have an obligation to present your case in a convenient, simple and entertaining fashion.

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End of Part 1 of 3 (jump to part 2 here or part 3 here)