Today’s age is marked by the advent of more and more tools to ease people’s workload, and tasks in the courtroom are no exception. Not surprisingly, lawyers are beginning to adopt innovations into their trial strategy, especially when planning their presentations.
Below are two of the many ways technology can benefit lawyers and their clients.
It helps organize and simplify information. Every case involves enormous amounts of data, that lawyers need to be able to summarize when they distill their arguments, and present to the jurors at trial. The use of computer and mobile applications allows the swift organization of information, for the presenter to conveniently refer to. Exhibits can be pulled up and set aside in a second, at any point during trial.
Moreover, technology can transform data and make it more easily digestible for the audience. Visually, the details can be presented according to an outline, but the transition would now be much more smooth and quick, with just the click of a button, instead of having jurors leaf through thick stacks of evidence. More visual cues will also help the general themes stand out: on a slideshow, for example, this can be achieved through using a different background for all the slides under each theme. Font size changes, highlights on the text, and zooming in or out may also be helpful in emphasizing points – and these are not possible to do with the old generation of visual aids.
It can tell stories more effectively.During trial, lawyers and witnesses are supposed to tell the story of what happened, and recreate scenes. It is not always easy to accomplish this through words. Thankfully, today’s digital visual communication solutions have become much more advanced, making them an effective tool when helping jurors imagine. These can also show timelines, comparisons, distributions, and extrapolations, all of which can support the presentation of arguments by letting the viewers visualize what would have been a long list of numbers, or dates and corresponding events, or every possible permutation of an incident.
Infographics can, for instance, make survey resultslook more interesting and story-like, by juxtaposing them against the location and class or race demographic of the participants. For a case involving an accident, trial presentation technology can demonstrate what would have happened for changes involving each factor – alcohol intake of the defendant, the speed of the car, the presence of another vehicle, etc. – based on predictive modelling.
Truly, trial technology can save people in the courtroom a lot of time and effort, so much so that many judges and jurors expect lawyers to use them at any possibility. Law firms that seek to be a step ahead of the opposing party must then invest in these innovations, or partner with legal consulting firms that specialize in learning about them.
New York-based Dubin Research and Consulting, led by Josh Dubin, Esq. constantly monitors trends in trial technology and demonstrative evidence, and masters these for seamless adoption into their clients’ legal strategy. Get in touch with DRC today to know more.
