The Trial Technologist's View » Presentations

Presentation for a Class Action Hearing

Blake Boyd — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 19:53:12 +0000

A while back we created this presentation in Keynote for use in a hearing where the attorneys were explaining to the Judge why this matter should be granted class action status. It’s difficult to explain the argument in text, but generally they were arguing that the fraud was occurring while using the US Postal service. The confusing part is that they also shipped via Fedex/UPS, which threw a kink into the theory.

Take a look at the video below for a video example of the slides.

Ben Stevens shows us how to print handouts in Keynote

Blake Boyd — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 18:49:40 +0000

I was reading an article today on SBOT.org (which is the state bar of Texas’ Technology sections blog) about “story boarding” presentations for the courtroom. Pretty interesting article and I agree with the philosphy. But what caught my eye is this quote:

“Practice Tip: If you’re using a Powerpoint (or Keynote) to persuade a Judge, create a Handout for him/her.

I don’t think I’ve ever recommended a client to do that, I always print out copies but they are normally for the attorneys to have in hand while giving the presentation or for producing to opposing counsel to review. That’s something I’m always going to suggest from now on.

Literally 45 seconds later I click on over to The Mac Lawyer and notice Ben Stevens has recently posted a great walk-through on how to print handouts in Keynote.
Thanks for the help Ben, perfect timing!

Best Laser Pointer For Your Presentation

Edgar Hernandez — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 18:16:48 +0000

Laser pointers are very useful during presentations, allowing the speaker to point important areas on the display screen from across the room. Red laser pointers are the most common type and use a lower powered light, normally a 650nm wavelength. You can get a common red laser pointer for less than $20 today. Green laser pointers have recently become more popular and are powered by a more powerful laser (usually a 532nm wavelength), making them much more visible that red lasers. Some green laser pointers are more than 50 times more powerful than the red ones, and can even burn paper and cast a visible beam even in a lighted room. The low-end green laser pointers start at about $50 and can go up to several hundred dollars for a more high powered one. We use Green laser pointer on our presentation and they work great they are brighter than the Red lasers and are easier to follow on the screen.

Now since Green lasers are more powerful than the Red one, it is important to keep in mind that people have been arrested for pointing them at planes, at people at sporting events, and at or around law enforcement officers. So use them wisely – laser pointers ARE NOT toys and should not be used in away to cause damage to people or property.

What you need to know about LCD Monitors in the Courtroom

Blake Boyd — Tue, 04 May 2010 19:22:21 +0000

Technology is cheap! Acquiring a full courtroom monitor setup (plaintiff, defense, witness, judge, dual display) would cost a fortune only a couple years ago. Now you can have a slick outfit for a relatively good price. But don’t let this confuse you…

Take a quick look online and without much searching you can find a 22″ LCD monitor from companies like Acer that are under $200 and are actually pretty good looking screens. In my last trial, the competitor Litigation Support company set up 7 of them. SEVEN 22″ monitors strung throughout the courtroom. It was like walking into a technology wonderland. I really like the way it looked, but I knew how it would not perform well.

All the monitors were run through a switch that allowed for each monitor to be turned off or on in any combination. All the technology was wired and setup properly, and it ran without a hitch. But there was a huge issue, size…

The screen that was on the witness stand was so large that you could only see the face of the person testifying. My client had to turn his monitor sideways in order to see the judge and witness easier. Defense counsel left theirs up and the Judge seemed pleased with her monitors placement. But just the vast size of these monitors made it hard to see people in the courtroom.

It’s something we should all consider when choosing what piece of technology to bring into the courtroom. Going along with my theory that the technology should be as transparent as possible, the large LCD monitors just don’t fit into the equation. Ideally everyone should be able to view the projection screen, but if there isn’t a position where everyone can, I make sure that at least the judge and jury have a great view of the big screen.

I don’t see any point in bringing in screens larger than 15″-17″. I actually prefer 15″ but they are getting harder to find. The brand/model we are these Sony 15″, unfortunately they are discontinued. Also issue to note is that none of the major trial technology presentation software packages take advantage of a monster windscreen LCD properly.

I would also stress that placement is a big issue, the monitors should be as out of sight as possible, while still viewable. The easiest way to determine if a location is good is to sit behind it and look around at what you can and can’t see. Ideally the screen should not block anything.

Voir Dire Exhibit Board – Proximate Cause

Blake Boyd — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:31:40 +0000

A Trial Tech view reader from California saw our Negligence board example and had use create a similar board but with the definition of Proximate Cause. We mailed him the print and he had it mounted at Kinkos/Fedex. We printed an extra copy and mounted it, think it turned out pretty good.

Adobe TV Reveals CS5 Launch

Edgar Hernandez — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 04:16:53 +0000

Adobe TV revealed the CS5 launch today, with the Creative Suite 5 Production Premium Kit, it’s pricey – but reaming with the goods needed for any designer serious about their work.. The kit includes an upgraded Photoshop with “Truer Edge, which has better edge detecting technology, and of course Content-Aware Fill, which definitely looks like magic.”

With 64-bit applications built from the ground up, that means we can now render video files much faster and provide a better service for our clients with all their video needs.

CS5 Production

Voir Dire Exhibit Board – Negligence

Blake Boyd — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 18:47:16 +0000

With two more trials coming up next week I went ahead and prepared some “stock boards” as we like to call them. We offer them to our clients to show the panel the actual legal definitions, rather than trying to explain from notes. We often ship these to the city we are working in and have them mounted locally as well.

While this is a Voir Dire example, using boards in litigation is effective with everything from opening statement to expert witnesses to closing arguments. With the ability to leave them laying around where the jury always gets a constant reminder of what is one them we are huge advocates of combining these with trial presentations.

Here’s an example of Negligence:

Simple Features of Adobe Acrobat

Chuck Floyd — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 14:11:06 +0000

Adobe Acrobat has some amazing and simple features that do not come in the free download of Adobe Reader. Probably one of my personal favorites, is the ability to combine .pdf’s, insert and extract pages as well as separate all pages into separate files. Ok, simple you say whats so amazing about that? Well from experience, I know it’s time consuming to open a document page-by-page, document-by-document. It’s convenient to combine them, and be able to scroll through all of the pages at once without having to open and close files. Also sometimes you may only want to produce certain pages, the extract pages feature then might come into play. Until next time…

Soft Tissue Attorneys’ Deposition Technique [video]

Blake Boyd — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:29:58 +0000

In this example my client was able to save the expense of live testimony. At the same time, he got his demonstrative evidence of the surgery admitted, and sometimes getting this sort of evidence admitted can be an authoritative issue if you have no one in court to prove it up.

While completing some last minute synch’ing for one of the two trials that we provided litigation support for last week, I came across a great technique that I had never seen done before.

My client pulled up the doctor’s website (the deponent), where he had an animation of the surgery that was preformed waiting to be played back. The camera focused on the laptop screen and this is what the jury saw (remember it’s a 100″ screen they’re viewing this on):

The next question was:

5 Q. All right. Thank you. And the — Those slides
6 as well as the chart that you described earlier, do
7 those reasonably and accurately depict this type of –
8 of surgery and also the condition that you described for
9 us earlier?
10 A. Yes.

While it may not be on the top of your “what to do in a deposition” list, it’s wise to consider displaying your demonstrative evidence while in the video deposition.

Medical Illustrations

Blake Boyd — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:40:40 +0000

Listening to a doctor explain a procedure is one of the most difficult topics for a jury to visualize. Any case that involves injuries, whether it be a medical malpractice suit or a car wreck benefits from a quality medical illustration or animation. DLS does not create our own medical illustrations for use in our presentations, this is a very specialized field that takes a graphic designer with an extensive medical background. We suggest our clients to use a company based out of Dallas named MediVisuals.

While I can’t attest to how many illustrations they have, I do know that I’ve never had a client make a request they couldn’t produce. The downfall of using a company such as MediVisuals is the cost, while each illustration differs in price, they are normally very cost prohibitive for smaller cases (car wrecks), but are extremely useful if your case can justify the cost.

The next time you have a case involving an injury or botched medical procedure, put yourself in a jurors shoes… Would you be able to visualize what your expert is discussing? If not, I highly recommend using medical illustrations or animations.