Courtroom Technology - Coming of Age in the 21st Century
In the past few years you couldn't of helped but notice that things are changing in the courtroom. In 1996 the public got a glimpse of a (then) state-of -the-art courtroom presentation of the nationally televised trial of OJ Simpson. As I recall the only visuals provided were crime scene photos, a few timeoline graphs and several DNA-related drawings. Laptops were at the disposal of the attorneys and Barry Scheck made the most of an overhead projector.
More and more often in todays court an average jury will be made up of a majority of people who are visual learners. That is, they will want, at a deep psychological level, to have information presented to them visually. The majority of the public are quite comfortable getting their information via a "talking head" or through a demonstrative exhibit.
Most jury psychologists, including Amy Singer, believe that people learn much more through seeing and hearing rather than from hearing alone. The use of demonstrative evidence usually grabs the jury's attention and often has them sitting at the edge of their seats when things like models and objects are being shown.
Unfortunately, most litigators are auditory learners who prefer to teach orally.
Although this is quite natural for them it isn't always the most effective form of communicating an argument or building a foundation.
The problem created when these two groups communicate with one another is easily appreciated: Litigators feel effective by "saying it" and most jurors would rather "see it."
Today's courtroom has the potential for so much gadgetry and wizardry the American Bar Association has created a webpage to address the available technology entitled "(the) Legal Technology Resource Center". The Federal Judicial Center has also weighed in with the publication of "Effective Use of Courtroom Technology: A Judges Guide to Pretrial and Trial".
My mission is to assist you, the litigator by assisting you to make an informed decision as to what may or may not be applicable to a case you're presenting when you're considering adding "Ooh and Ahh" visuals to bolster your argument.
Sometimes you need to take a deep breath and rethink your options and look at the bigger picture - and we're here to help.
