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Court Drama by Gulf Coast Business Review

http://www.review.net/section/detail/courtroom-drama

Courtroom Drama

By: Review Staff at Gulf Coast Business Review

April 16, 2009

Trial Exhibits, Inc. Courtroom presentations, Owner Jack Stein
Jack Stein took his skills in graphics and photography and turned them into a successful enterprise, Trial Exhibits Inc., a Tampa company which provides presentation materials for attorneys in court among other services.

Trial Exhibits Inc. has taken lifeless courtroom flip charts and chalkboards and replaced them with video and full-color graphics.

During the 1989 fatal boating accident case involving St. Petersburg chiropractor Dr. William LaTorre, graphics expert Jack Stein noticed that a firm was providing the plaintiffs with special displays for their lawyers to use in the courtroom.

So Stein called noted Tampa defense attorney Barry Cohen, who was representing LaTorre, and offered to do the same for him and reconstruct the accident visually.

Cohen accepted, won the case and that seven months of work was the catalyst that created Trial Exhibits Inc., a Tampa company Stein founded in 1989.

Trial Exhibits now has 18 employees and does work all over the country. Besides Tampa, the company has offices in Orlando, Miami and Atlanta.

Its interactive video service stands in stark contrast to the chalkboards and black-and-white flip charts that attorneys used in courtrooms for years.

Today, Trial Exhibits provides flat screen monitors for the judge, jury and both attorneys and broadcasts full-color graphics and video on them.

An expert witness, for example, can walk the jury through an illustration or video; zoom in; rotate or highlight an image; show a document on one half of the screen and a video on the other; and draw on the screen with a light pencil, similar to TV football color commentator John Madden.

In fact, Stein calls it the “John Madden effect.”

“We’ve come a long way in 20 years,” Stein says. “We’ve all seen this on TV, so we’re not that amazed with it anymore.”

Technologically speaking…

Like it or not, the world has changed. In the last century, technology was a relatively new tool in the trial business and attorneys could get away with using the “old school” flip charts and handwritten boards. This century is a whole new world. Jurors’ perception of technology in the courtroom, which used to be negative, has done a complete flip. When jurors were interviewed in the last century, they would comment that the defense “had more money, so of course they could afford to put on a show”. Now they are aware that technology has come down in price and is immensely more affordable.

While conducting post-trial interviews over the course of the past year, one theme has been evident time and again. Jurors are making comparisons, and the attorney who is still using “old school” tactics usually does not come out on top. Jurors commented negatively about attorneys who fumbled with exhibits, who were using handwritten boards that were difficult or impossible to read. They have been accused of not caring enough about their clients to put on a clear, concise presentation.

This generation of jurors is used to getting their visual information on television and the internet. They are used to having things presented in sound bites and visual bulletpoints. They want their information packaged in a manner that takes little time and attention to absorb.

Electronic trials, multimedia presentations, 3D animations and trial graphics are available at any number of price points and can be tailored for even the most cost-conscious attorney. The smart attorney will at least price these services out before heading into trial again.

When technology was growing in the last century , when everyone was so enamored of the latest and greatest thing that they wanted it the second it came out, regardless of the cost, a tongue in cheek saying was making the rounds “he who dies with the most toys wins”. In this century, in the litigation industry, “he who tries with the most technology wins”.

How is the Economy Affecting Your Jury?

The trend in litigation over the past couple of years has been a reduction in jury awards and more defense verdicts. How does this relate to the economy? Everyone is doing studies, and everyone has a different idea on the subject, but the fact of the matter is that something is going on.

Although it is evident than in tough economic times jurors will be loathe to award the astronomical amounts that have received all the attention in prior years, there is another facet of this trend that is sometimes overlooked. Jurors are more sophisticated and are looking at the evidence more closely than they have historically. Attribute it to CSI and similar programs, to our “sound-bite” society, or simply to media attention; whatever the reason, jurors are expecting more out of counsel and those who provide what they are looking for are going to get the desired verdict.