Trial Presentation Blog : Courtroom Presentation, Litigation Software : Charles Perez : Trial Presentation Blog

My last few blogs highlighted a couple of programs designed to assist the in-house counsel present their cases, unassisted, in a courtroom. I caught some flack for that from fellow presenters who thought I was shooting our industry in the foot.

I'm happy to report that my recommendation, at least on the local level, went unheeded.

Over the past few weeks I've had the opportunity to assist in multi-document as well as basic presentations. In the case of the multi-document case our services were there from the start, from scanning each exhibit to preparing the video depositions with synchronized text. The opposing counsel arrived with his "dog and pony show" as well, complete with his home DVD player and his PowerPoint presentation and a woefully inadequate projector. The case began, we opened first, all went well - easy peezy.

NOTE: To those of us in this industry who do this on a regular basis, this is not "Rocket Science". After all, we're the geeks you remember as the "Audio-Visual" guys in high school and college. The nerds with their heads buried in their computers. You know us -you pretended to hate us, but deep down you sat in awe of our abilities.

It's what we do. It's our calling.

When the opposing counsel's opportunity to open came up the results were somewhat predictable: dim projector (which needed to be focused), a "PowerPoint Read-a-Long" that put everyone to sleep and a errant DVD player. Right on cue something went amiss in the PowerPoint presentation. I couldn't see the screen because I was sitting back in my usual position but, I could tell by the "deer in the headlights" look of the opposing counsel that something was amiss. I love this part.. you know, when they have that look of hoping for divine intervention or that the jury would somehow overlook this fluke. But they really wanted to be anywhere but here.

My message here is - if you're not comfortable with the presentation  processes save you and your client the embarrassment   of appearing incompetent - do what you do best - be a lawyer - leave the fun stuff to us professionals!

PS- Let us slay your dragon! - I can be reached, toll-free at (800)261-7266 or, check out our web site at http://www.VRLegal.com!

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Quick Disclaimer: I was not, nor have been compensated in any way for this review.

I came across this extremely simple to operate presentation program about a month ago and finally got around to testing it out last week. Generally, with a new program I set aside a few hours to pick it apart and run it through its paces and explore where I may be able to incorporate it in a future presentation. Most of the programs I review have several options, a myriad a bells and whistles and along with a moderate (to steep learning curve to boot.

After trying ExhibitView last year I assumed that courtroom presentation programs couldn't get much easier, however, that was before I came across TrialFusion.

TrialFusion has one (and only one) function : to categorize, Bates Stamp (optional) and bar code your exhibit photos in about 4 easy steps and without the use of very few brain cells.

Once you've printed out your exhibit and put into your exhibit folder you're ready for court with a fail safe method for calling up any photo, in any order by either inputting the ID Number from your computer keyboard or (preferably) using a hand-held bar code scanner and projecting it to the jury.

That's basically "it". No other bells, no other whistles!

Just a simple, yet affordable, method to simplify an otherwise daunting task.

TrialFusion has a quick 3 minute overview of the program that you can watch by clicking here.

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