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

A Few More Apps That Make My Life Easier

May 30, 2024 by 2 Comments

apps iconsI’m getting ready to head to Vegas for the annual American Society of Trial Consultants conference. I appreciate networking with this group because their members are full of ideas and new information on trial research, strategy and technology. Check out ASTC’s publication The Jury Expert and their blog aggregator, The Red Well, to tap into two great resources on trial advocacy.

At the conference, I’ll join litigation consultant Alison Bennett for a presentation on “iPad Technology for Trial Consultants,” during which we’ll highlight many apps that increase productivity at work, home and, of course, in the courtroom. I’ve blogged before about my favorite presentation apps for litigation (see, for example, this earlier post on Keynote for Attorneys, which is a great alternative to PowerPoint; or this post on SlideShark and Idea Flight). Now, I’d like to mention a few others apps that I’ve come to rely on and truly enjoy. [Read more...]

Case In Point: How Animations Helped Attorneys in Patent Litigation

May 22, 2024 by 3 Comments

Screen Shot 2024-05-21 at 12.58.41 PMOur firm recently worked on a patent case between two Internet software companies that required illustration of the various inner workings of the Internet. While most people use the Internet on a regular (if not constant) basis, far fewer actually know what goes on “behind the scenes,” so to speak. What actually happens when you open your browser and type in a web address? These animations provided the attorneys with visual aids to explain the step-by-step process—an example of how to visually explain complex, technical ideas to jurors in a way they can comprehend.

Here are a few of the Flash animations we made for the trial. One reason I’m sharing them here is to show how we recommend breaking down a process into parts to explain to a jury. This can involve static images or animations or a combination of both. The key is to take the complex and walk the viewer through the process. [Read more...]

Two iPad Apps for Attorneys to Present in Court or in Meetings

May 7, 2024 by 5 Comments

slideshark

When the iPad first came out and attorneys began using it as a tool to help present their cases visually, I thought how great it would be if a presentation could be seen by all participants on their own tablet as opposed to projected on a screen. This personal contact with the tablet in their hands would resolve a major limitation on presentations given on a screen, which is a lack of resolution. When you project a presentation, you lose 60 to 70 percent of the resolution you get from your computer screen, and the viewer has to look across a room, which is why you need to make fonts quite big and images quite bold. iPads with retina display have better resolution and can be viewed close up, which means that detailed charts and diagrams are possible to show in a way they would not be if projected.

Wouldn’t it be great if every juror in a jury trial were provided a tablet to view an attorney’s presentation in high resolution? Or, if a group of attorneys could each view a presentation on a tablet during a meeting?

With this idea of presenting directly to other tablets in the back of my mind, I was interested when I recently received an email notice from SlideShark advertising you can “broadcast your slides over the web for FREE this month!” As one who is easily distracted and likes playing with new things, I couldn’t resist trying it out. [Read more...]