Trial Presentation Blog

Presenting your message effectively in court is any litigators ultimate goal whether your presentation is in front of a jury or only in the presence of a judge. With the technology today it is easy to become sidetracked by the medium presenting your message.

My advice to our clients is "Less is More"; although we can provide the audio and visual tools to promote your argument it isn't always necessary to overwhelm the court with a production worthy of MTV.

I was recently reminded of this at a seminar presented by Lorman Education Services entitled "Litigation Skills for Legal Staff". One of the attorneys presenting was Michael A. Geibelson, a partner at the Los Angeles offices of Robins,Kaplan,Miller & Ciresi L.L.P.  

Attorney Geibelson stated "Even if very complex, high stakes cases, it often makes sense sense to do things in-house as simple graphics often convey a message better than more complex ones. Complex, overly-professional graphics can send the wrong message, i.e. that a particular side is too well funded, or that you're trying to pull one over on the jury. In light of these concerns, the trial lawyer may choose to do nothing more sophisticated for a graphics presentation than stand in front of a large tablet with a wide, black or red or green) marker." 

So, even when all the technical "goodies" are available to make your argument I will generally advise you to adhere to the "KISS" approach to your  presentation (Keep It Simple Stupid) as opposed to the heavy-metal rock band K.I.S.S. production.

Writing a blog in (The) Trial Lawyer Resource Center   from October 2006 entitled "Heighten Juror's Interest with Demonstrative Exhibits", author  David Swanner advises that " in most cases, you have at least one demonstrative exhibit that will will shock or wow the jury. A common mistake is to overexpose that picture to the jury, thereby desensitizing them to it.

Another way to do that it to put a black border tape around all of your foam core exhibits. Except for he one exhibit. Put red border tape around that exhibit. When your foam core boards are leaning up against the wall, the jury will see that they all have black border tape except for the one. That will heighten their curiosity in seeing that exhibit.

After they have seen the exhibit and the boards are leaning up against the wall, they will notice the red border standing out among the black borders and it will remind them of the exhibit without even seeing the picture."

Simple, yet effective - you know, "K.I.S.S."

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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.

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