When you hear the word “drone,” it’s hard not to think about the unmanned attack drones flown from airbases and used to hunt down suspected terrorists. The term conjures up [...]

We all know the power of a well-done animation in front of a jury. Such animations can help visually explain concepts in moments instead of in hours. However, they can also be instrumental in [...]

Regardless of whether liability is an issue, visually explaining to the jury precisely how an injury occurred is a crucial part of a plaintiff’s case presentation. Often, plaintiff’s attorneys [...]

At the 2014 annual meeting of the San Francisco Intellectual Property Law Association, SFIPLA, a panel of judges shared their experiences and reflections on what works and what doesn't work in a [...]

Three important lessons for visual aids: (1) Tie animations or other visual aids tightly to the evidence in the case; (2) Use simple visual aids to help jurors understand and track the evidence; [...]

A GIF illustrating the story of an email as it goes through litigation.

A "biomechanical animation" is a powerful visual format to develop and display in conjunction with a biomechanical expert, even in an admitted liability case. Such animations are relevant when [...]

After spending time, effort and money to produce an animation that will support a key point of your case (or disprove a key point of your opponents’ case), you want to make sure the jury [...]

In oral argument, a litigator has very limited time—she needs to hit the high points and move on. She must communicate enough information to convince the judge or jury of her argument, yet must [...]

Great graphics make difficult concepts understandable, and such graphics are what we aspire to each day at Cogent Legal. Today’s blog entry will dissect a graphic from the New York Times [...]

As former trial attorneys here at Cogent Legal, we know the value of good trial graphics. Our clients appreciate and understand the need for high-quality in-court presentation too. Recently, [...]

Good litigation graphics convey a message quickly and clearly. The example animation in today’s post supports an argument that plaintiff’s claim for a “reasonable royalty” [...]

Good animations can make difficult patent language and complicated patent diagrams come to life. An animation can make a bored judge or juror wake up, pay attention and engage with your argument. [...]

I recently had the pleasure of doing a presentation for the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association on technology in the courtroom. My co-presenters (Miles Cooper of Rouda, Feder, Tietjen & [...]

I’ve been thinking a great deal about PowerPoint recently, and not in a good way. At Cogent Legal, we have been working hard on a number of cases that involve extensive use of PowerPoint [...]

Our 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 [...]

I always like to share examples of what I consider powerful graphics to give attorneys ideas on what’s possible to create for use in litigation. This morning, I was struck by a video going [...]

I am constantly amazed at how the world of litigation has changed so much in such a short period of time since I started practicing almost 20 years ago. OK, I accept that some of you don’t [...]

One of the things that has changed the most since I started practicing law two decades ago is the prevalence of surveillance video in tort cases. Twenty years ago, surveillance was still [...]

One of the things I love about the work we do at Cogent Legal is having what I like to call “play time.” By that I mean time to sit and play with a new design-related app or product [...]

Yesterday was one of those days that reminded me of the value of visiting a site for a construction-related case to see and feel firsthand what is involved. Couldn’t I simply hire a [...]

[UPDATE: We uploaded the webinar on SlideShare and embedded it below so you can watch the whole thing if you like.] Yesterday, I co-presented a CLE webinar on “Technology for Better [...]

When it comes to construction issues, I feel like the actor in that old ad on TV who says, “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV.” I’m not in the construction field, [...]

[Update: The September 2012 issue of Plaintiff magazine features an article by me on this topic. For an expanded discussion, click here to read a PDF of the printed article.] On Monday, the [...]

More often than not, litigating a case boils down to persuasively explaining your theory of what happened. You bring in experts and witnesses to testify. You show photographs, documents, charts [...]

Picture yourself in court getting ready to present a first-rate animation created by a professional litigation graphics company. The opposing counsel jumps up to say, “Your honor, we object to [...]