Civil jurors in a Los Angeles court are using special iPads to review admitted trial exhibits during the trial. As I observed in a KPCC interview about iPads in court, I expect to see more iPads in coming years in the hands of judges, attorneys and jurors. The iPad is a great, easy-to-use tool for presenting and consuming content (which is exactly what happens in courts). This post includes a demonstration of a custom-made iPad app made to illustrate a patent.
My partner, Morgan Smith, has written many posts about iPads, and their advantages for attorneys. The iPad allows an attorney to easily control a slide presentation projected onto a courtroom screen for the judge or jury. Using an app such as TrialPad or Trial Director for iPad allows an attorney to present documents, deposition video and other evidence on the screen.
In case you’re looking for a few last-minute holiday gifts for people in your office—or if you just want to try some new gadgets for yourself—the TechnoLawyer NewsWire has come out with its top 25 new products of the year. TL NewsWire’s nearly 12,000 subscribers determined the Top 25 list, and you can check out […]
If you’re reading this blog, chances are you have an interest in legal tech and litigation graphics. You likely know they’re important for any 21st-century case presentation. But you know less about how to get trouble-free and top-quality tech, demonstratives and litigation support. Maybe it feels too time consuming, too expensive or simply too overwhelming to […]
A week ago, I was invited to Portland, Oregon, to present at the Federal District of Oregon Conference on “Innovations in Law: Science and Technology.” The conference explored the intersection of law and technology from many different angles. It utilized the Ignite method of presentation that involves each participant having six minutes and 20 slides, which are […]
Recently, the GCResearchClub.com, a UK-based networking group for in-house lawyers, interviewed me about litigation graphics and case presentation. I excerpted some of the Q&A here. Many thanks to William Barns-Graham, content manager at the GC Research Club, for the interview. Q: How important is visual presentation for a GC? A: In the area of patents in […]
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 for the client, and I often feel that getting PowerPoint to do anything involving multimedia is like trying to make a […]
I’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 […]
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 […]
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 without any specific goal in mind beyond exploring its functionality and seeing what it will do, […]
I remember distinctly the day I got my first-generation iPhone in 2007. I was the first in my law office to get one, and when I figured out how the phone’s email system worked with our internal system, then I realized I could have my assistant send documents to me so I could review them […]
One of my first posts on this blog discussed all the complications involved with calculating a verdict in California for personal injury cases, especially when a workers’ compensation lien and/or prior settlement must be taken into account. Given my growing love of the iPad for litigation, I figured it was time to update that post and […]
I’ve been giving a number of presentations at law firms on the use of iPads for attorneys, with a focus on new apps for the courtroom and mediation. I generally start the presentation by asking how many attorneys own an iPad, with about one-third saying they do. Of that group, many say it’s mostly used […]
This weekend, I’m heading to Monterey to give a presentation on “New Technologies for Federal Litigation” for the Northern District of California 2012 Judicial Conference. Since I’m going to discuss the use of courtroom technology while using my iPad wirelessly through an Apple TV, I prepared a handout that lists all the equipment you would need to […]
I have always loved the challenge of figuring out a way to show a large set of information all in one graphic. The undisputed master of high information graphics is Edward Tufte, whom I had the privilege of seeing recently at his latest swing through the Bay Area. Mr. Tufte has made the point for […]
There’s been a lot of hype about the iPad’s apps for the legal profession. I’m going to add to it with a prediction that may seem far-fetched, but I believe stands a strong chance of coming to pass: The iPad will revolutionize the way legal briefs are created, distributed and presented. This post describes how […]
Last week, the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) put on a full one-day mock trial in San Francisco in front of a large gathering of attorneys to show how the masters of trial do their trade. The mock trial turned out to be a fascinating study in contrasts between the plaintiff and defense in […]
The benefit of the ongoing digital revolution in litigation is that so much more is possible than ever before for the creation and presentation of graphics for cases. But for every step forward with better technology and more precise apps, it seems as though these tech tools become more complicated and technical. I’ve discovered many […]
Recently, while creating graphic timelines for clients, I explored new ways to use Adobe InDesign to produce interactive PDFs for these timelines. By “interactive PDF,” I mean a dynamic document that has layers of information in multimedia formats (e.g. photos, video, animations, infographics) that an attorney easily can scroll through while presenting the case chronologically. […]
I finally joined the ranks of iPad owners. Better late than never, right? I’m normally one of the first to run out and get a new toy, especially if it has the name Apple on it. The iPad was different, though. My initial thought when Apple released the iPad was that it looks really cool, […]
