Kentucky

Continuation of presentation and notes from seminar from Kentucky Justice Association and  Kentucky Defense Counsel on Trial Techniques & Strategies.

Demonstrative Evidence from Plaintiff Perspective

• Juries are coming to expect the media presentation.
• Powerpoint has limitations. Windows program.
• Use Sanction which allows incorporating  video into presentation right out of the box (for windows).  Free standing program and has added features such as timeline, etc.  Trial Director is a program similar to Sanction II designed for lawyers and use at trials.
• MIKE STEVENS:  [Note I use Keynote from Apple which allows videos and operates on an Apple.  Editing with Quicktime Pro is easy when you purchase the code from apple.com for about $20. Trial Smart and Depo Smart are inexpensive products from Clarity Legal Software and supports both windows and apple!!!  For an outstanding Kentucky web site on trial technology, go to Finis Price's site at www.TechnoEsq.com].
• Deposition can be incorporated via video and use of Live Note to have text with yellow highlighting matching up with the text.  Also listen to video clip and read text to make sure the answer comes out the way you hoped it did.
• Watch out
  • Jurors will look ahead (eg., danger when passing out exhibits).
• Digital enhancement of pictures to show details.
• Elmo comes in handy when not everything is scanned and can simply put a page, a picture, a three dimensional object to show up on the screen.
• Tips -
  
  • Get handouts, brochures, stardards etc from the internet by visiting company web sites.
  • Purchase specialized program for courtroom presentations, eg., Santion, Trial Director, Trial Smart (and Depo Smart which allows you to do your own depo/text clip).
  • Two monitor system so jury does not see everything on your screen.
  • Make sure redactions are not visible to the jury.
  • Who should run the software in court (get someone to work the computer!!)
  • Fail safe with backup enlargements of important exhibits.
  • Google it.
  • Company web sites.
  • Visit the courtroom with tech to make sure it is seamless and no missing pieces of technology or cabling!

Demonstrative Evidence from Defendant Perspective

• Medical illustrations - blowups and digital.  Show color and more explicit depiction.
• When to use tech
  • Google experts, plaintiffs, and witnesses for articles and social sites.  Your client and witnesses, and the other side's too.  MySpace or Facebook can contain videos and information inconsistent with plaintiff's injuries.
  • iDex - expert research data base is for the defense bar and is work product (same goes for plaintiff's bar of Trial Smith).
  • Voir dire - if plaintiff not in court then use video day in life to show jury to see if jury can still be fair
  • Using depos in opening run risk of mistrial if later ruled inadmissible. Risk is greater for deposition of nonparty since  rule not provide for use "for any purpose" like party's deposition and witness may testify differently from deposition.
  • Media presentation can outline opening and points and use is within judge's discretion.  See, Compton v. St. Elizabeth Medical Cntr, 2005 WL 327116 (Ky. App. 2005).  Bulletted is similar to blackboard.
  • If objection to use of media presentation is sustained, be sure to preserve record and included in the record.
  • Examples of media evidence using Sanction:
    • Medical records with blowups, arrows, and highlighting of text.
    • Medical illustration
    • Digitized continuous printout of EKG or fetal monitor strip (MIKE STEVENS NOTE:  I have taken a sliced CT Scan on the hospitals disk, played it and recorded it.  Then converted it to Quicktime and incorporated it as a movie in the Keynotes presentation. It was a bit touchy for me as I played the CT scan through a windows platform and used a program which allowed me to define a portion of the screen to capture the video which was then saved in Quicktime format.  Here is a link to some video capture software I found at cNet but cannot vouch for any of it.  I actually used iShowU for the Mac which worked great. See also this site.

I have re-edited these posts and deleted the names of the presenters.  Not because I want to deny them individual credit, but because I did not want to risk improper attribution and embarass them based upon my summaries and poor typing.  However, they all did an outstanding job from both sides.  Kudos to the Kentucky Justice Association and the Kentucky Defense Counsel on a job well done and an incredible cooperative effort to educate and promote the professionalism of the bar.