Litigation Showcase

High-Tech Trials: The Future Is Already Here

Editor's Note:

As we approach the new millennium, trial lawyers (perhaps more than other practitioners) face many challenges and opportunities as they incorporate legal technology into their law practices. law technology news is pleased to present this special litigation showcase to highlight these issues.

By Samuel Solomon

THERE'S NO question that to remain competitive, lawyers must offer a comprehensive range of technology expertise. What special technological challenges face trial lawyers? What will a high tech courtroom look like five years from now?

Actually, the technologies of the future are available now in selected courtrooms across the country. In those courts, jurists and court administrators have collaborated with vendors to identify technologies that improve communication among participants during trial, and increase overall efficiency of court proceedings.

Lawyers can prepare for the future by mastering the technology available today. Gone are the days of hunting through mounds of paper in search of a specific document. Now, we have instantaneous access to legal cases and statutes. In the courtroom, "real-time" transcripts appear on counsel notebooks as quickly as the court reporter types -- allowing lawyers to search (and annotate) the trial record while the case is in progress.

Internet access allows users to reach colleagues back at the office at a moment's notice, for strategic decisions and expert opinions. In essence, you can have the support of the entire firm behind you during every trial.

Components

Components of the high tech courtroom include an evidence presentation system, video conferencing for trial and depositions, real-time court reporting, audio enhancement, data access, and judiciary controls. These components enable litigators to interact more effectively with all participants of the trial.

Technology-enhanced evidence presentation is more visually interesting and graphically appealing to jurors who are accustomed to learning about news and events from television sets. Its effective use however, requires practice and skill.

In the high tech courtroom, a digital evidence presentation system serves as the control center for all video and digital display. A typical configuration includes an evidence or document camera for display of physical evidence, X-rays, documents etc. Multiple inputs support the attorney's laptop, an electronic illustration device and a printer for preservation of evidence displayed during trial.

Different types of playback devices may include a VCR and audio cassette deck. (You can expect to see DVD players in the near future.)

The digital evidence system supports a full range of media display options, including viewing of video and computer presentations. Several courtrooms have been outfitted with individual flat panel monitors in the jury box, offering a comfortable viewing experience for jurors. This enables lawyers to quicken the pace of exhibit presentation, replacing the tedious, distracting process of waiting for exhibits to be passed from one juror to another.

Attorneys must understand how to best use today's tools. High tech tools do not, in and of themselves, guarantee a winning presentation. Digital display, using programs such as Microsoft's PowerPoint, can be enormously powerful or incredibly boring. Every tool has its specialty and should not be used simply because it is there.

Choosing the most appropriate technology for a particular exhibit is the ticket to unleashing the persuasive powers the high tech courtroom can offer. For example, many attorneys display detailed bullet lists on the screen, with small text, forcing jurors to concentrate carefully to absorb the material.

Simply put, this is not a practical use of graphics. Digital display is best used to teach detail. A "live" screen is perfect for zooming in on important phrases within a document, for highlighting, and using animation, for "pulling out" the lines the jury should remember.

Photographs can be enlarged, or cropped to focus on a specific area. The digital screen also is well suited to comparative analysis and general review using bulleted phrases or sound bites -- not paragraphs.

Master the Nuances

Mastering the nuances of digital presentation lets you communicate with the jury in an exciting and compelling fashion. This is the power of digital persuasion.

Digital housekeeping issues are worthy of consideration here as well. For maximum access to digitized evidence, careful indexing of transcripts with systematic naming of exhibits is critical. Everyone on your team should be able to access an exhibit with just a moments thought as to what the name of the file might be.

Prejudicial names for files, such as "ugly guy's testimony" are dangerous, as they might appear briefly on the screen, and be visible to the jury. This may seem silly, but coordination with technical support staff in advance of trial and during the proceedings, is of key importance to a smooth, well orchestrated presentation.

Videoconferencing

The introduction of videoconferencing within court proceedings breaks through the barriers of physical space, so as not to impede the progress of a trial. Videoconferencing offers litigators a practical and cost effective solution when choosing to put an out-of-state witness on the stand. Expert witnesses from around the world can now be introduced into trial without the expense of a personal appearance. In addition, an expert's appearance can be determined based on the trial schedule and not the travel schedule of the witness.

Enabling jurors to replay a videotape of an expert's testimony during deliberations can prove extremely powerful and persuasive.

Witnesses debilitated by illness can participate in legal proceedings without having to set foot in the courtroom. Young children frightened by the trial environment can testify in a less intimidating area outside the courtroom. Prisoners who pose a security risk can be deposed without ever leaving the jailhouse.

If this technology is in use today, what should we expect five years down the road? To coin a phrase: "Coming soon to a court near you." Availability and convenience will be the driving forces that establish videoconferencing as a commonly accepted, and sought after, option for the gathering of evidence.

Delivery of complex evidence in a juror-friendly way will forever remain the focus of courtroom litigation. However, technology has generated a new level of communication between attorney and jury; one of greater expression and understanding. In the words of Yale professor Edward R. Tufte, "Excellence consists of complex ideas communicated with clarity, precision and efficiency, and that is just as true of the new media as of the old."

Samuel Solomon is chief executive officer of DOAR Communications, based in Rockville Center, N.Y.