News, views and tips on litigation graphics, trial strategy and the law.

How to Avoid “Death by PowerPoint”: 3 Tips for Visual Presentations

April 26, 2024 by 4 Comments

When attorneys do a fair amount of work on their own to create visual presentations, they face a risk that I call “Death by PowerPoint.” The symptoms involve overly long, badly constructed, repetitive messes of PowerPoints and other graphics that will kill anyone’s attention.

Death by PowerPoint generally happens when attorneys are so jammed on time that graphics or presentations end up looking “slapped together” with less-than-impressive results. It also happens when they display confusing and overcomplicated graphics that may distract a juror’s focus from the point being made.

I speak from personal experience, having almost fallen victim to Death by PowerPoint numerous times! The problem arises from the fact that preparing for trial can be all-consuming, with many competing interests. [Read more...]

The Best Way to Present a Case under the New One-Day Trial Law

April 25, 2024 by 2 Comments

The Expedited Jury Trial Act (Act; Code of Civil Procedure §§ 630.01 – 630.10, AB 2284), which went into effect in California on January 1, allows cases to be tried in a single day. It’s really the first major overhaul of how a trial may be conducted in the State of California, and it offers tremendous opportunity for attorneys and their clients. [Read more...]

How to Easily Calculate a Net Verdict in a Personal Injury Case

April 22, 2024 by Leave a Comment

In the same way that tax laws start off simple and get much more complicated over time, the process of figuring out what a plaintiff in a personal injury case actually receives after a verdict keeps getting ever more complicated.

Fear not—this article provides a downloadable Excel sheet that calculates all the values for you by simply putting in the total award amounts, percentages of fault and lien amounts. [Read more...]

Welcome to Cogent Legal Blog

April 21, 2024 by 1 Comment

Hello! I know your time is short and valuable, so I’ll get right to the point.

A PI lawyer, a defense attorney and a judge walk into a bar one day and …

Jokes aside, I’m launching this blog as an offshoot of Cogent Legal’s website for five main reasons:

(1) to share practical news, tips and tools that help trial attorneys move their cases forward to successful resolution;

(2) to show attorneys how to use graphics and develop visual presentations to make their cases more compelling and easy to understand;

(3) to share news about emerging trends and issues in litigation—and to give me a soapbox to share my opinions on those trends and issues;

(4) to link to others in the legal graphics and litigation field so that we can swap ideas and shout-outs;

(5) and finally, last but not least, to promote a less stressed, more manageable workplace for attorneys. Let’s face it: We work in an adversarial field with deadline pressures and dog-eat-dog relationships that can feel unbearable. I launched my new firm, Cogent Legal, in part to make the life of a trial attorney easier by providing services that can help them save time, achieve optimal results, and avoid lengthy trials and appeals.

In upcoming posts I’ll share some practical advice, but for now, I’ll end with a story that has almost nothing to do with my field of litigation graphics and strategic consultation. It’s about the Ancient Mayans. No joke. [Read more...]