I can still remember the good old days, when I tried a medical malpractice case using little or no demonstrative evidence. The defendant doctor would be on the witness stand, a copy of his chart or the record of the hospital admission on his lap. I would have a copy in front of me on the podium or counsel table. I would ask a question about a particular note. He would search through the chart (the bigger the better - the longer the deafening silence) and then one of us would read the note and a series of questions about the note would follow. At least one juror would be listening intently with closed eyes, the chest supporting the head that was working so hard. Other jurors would have that glazed look on their face that told me they thought the doctor was boring them to death. The yawns and stretches further convinced me of that fact. Occasionally, one or two would be looking at my clients or other spectators in the back of the courtroom, or perhaps counting the freckles in the ceiling tiles.
I eventually decided that it would be a good idea for the jurors to see the document a witness was talking about for themselves because it might help them to follow what was being said, or at least make it more interesting. At that point, I began to use "blow-ups" of any documents I intended to discuss with a witness in front of the jury. At first, this was outsourced to a facility that charged a handsome fee for each page reproduced on a large board. Later, I purchased and began using a machine that made poster-sized prints of individual pages of a medical record in black and white, approximately 2 ½ feet high by 2 feet wide. These were then placed on Styrofoam boards with a Velcro frame to hold them in place. They would then be placed on an easel and displayed to the jury during questioning of a witness. For some trials, it was necessary to make as many as 15 to 20 of these posters. I know that it riveted the jury on those occasions when I would have to clumsily fumble through the stack of them, looking for the one that I wanted to question a witness about. I'm sure they enjoyed the suspense created by the possibility that I might not find what I was looking for. It gave me an opportunity to come across as a regular guy when I would apologize after five minutes of searching, realizing that I had not had the foresight to enlarge that particular page into a poster. They would be entertained if the easel fell over or if posters would fall off of it. It was not all one-sided however, as I found it entertaining to watch as some of the jurors, particularly the older ones strained to read the poster five to ten feet away from them before giving up the effort.
About four years ago, I heard about a couple of attorneys using a laptop computer and a projector to show medical records and illustrations to jurors during trials and I wanted to know how they were doing it. I called one of them, who happened to be a defense attorney. He told me that all of the medical records were scanned onto a CD-ROM for him, and were printed out with a bar code for each page. All he had to do was pass the wand of a bar code reader over the bar code (zap it!) and the page appeared on the projection screen in the courtroom. The software allows you to enlarge a portion of the page, even a sentence. This requires no greater technical sophistication than the ability to use a mouse.
To get started, I needed the software, a laptop computer, a projector, a screen, a bar code reader and an extension cord. I was able to buy everything from a vendor who came to the office and taught me in a matter of a couple of hours the basics of setting up a courtroom presentation. He also was willing to scan the records of a case, provide me with two copies of the CD-ROM containing the document images, and a looseleaf with a bar coded copy of the entire record, plus file folder labels of just the bar codes. The copy allows you to provide your adversary with the scanned images. This is a good idea because it is helpful in overcoming potential objections. Each page has its own bar code, which means that the label representing a particular page can be pasted into your notes allowing you to pull up the correct page in the sequence you want. As a back up to the bar code system, you can also type the bar code ID of the document and the page will appear.
More recently, I have begun to do the scanning in-house. We create a subdirectory in each case's computer file. We then move it to the laptop when it is time to prepare for the trial presentation. The images are loaded into Trial Director by simply dragging and dropping. The software assigns a bar code ID to each image. We print out the bar-coded pages (it is possible to condense multiple pages into one in thumbnail formats, but I don't recommend it). The document can then be called to the screen either by reading the bar code with a hand held scanning device, or by typing the ID while the software is in its Presentation Mode which is a black screen with a menu which can be hidden.
For those with more exotic taste, the software also will allow you to create a "call-out" where a sentence or paragraph is enlarged and shown on the page as a whole and where it was pulled out of in context. You can highlight, circle, underline, use arrows, and just about everything else. Another trick is to put two pages side by side and up to four pages at a time. This allows less screen size to each, and I haven't found it to be practical for my own purposes.
Actually, the software has the capacity to do a lot more than I use it for. If you videotape depositions, you can use the software to create clips and playback a prior inconsistent answer for impeachment purposes, rather than just reading it. Anything that can be scanned can be shown, including photographs, medical illustrations and radiology films (this requires very specialized scanning equipment and is more expensive than scanning documents, although I have heard that some people simply use a digital camera to photograph it - I can't imagine thatthe image quality is sufficient for courtroom display). For any application involving sound you need to make sure that the system you are using has adequate amplification and speakers before you get to the courtroom. You don't want to show the jury a videotaped deposition, and have them request that it be read instead because they are unable to hear the sound.
Since the records are scanned on the computer, you have the ability to show any page to the jury, even if you did not anticipate the need to do so. The ability to enlarge the document means that every one will be able to read legible entries, and even to see with their own eyes if there happens to be an alteration of the record or a disputed interpretation. If there is an obvious alteration in the record, I like to have the jury see it for themselves, BIG, while the witness tries to deny or explain it. If an expert claims he didn't see an entry, or discounted it, I want it in front of the jury - the size of a wall! - while I question him or her about it.
If you are interested in this type of technology, there are two web sites you need to visit. Trial Director is made by a company called inData and a free demonstration version of the software is available online at http://www.indatacorp.com/. A competing product, known as sanction is also available at http://www.verdictsystems.com/. Other valuable resources include a book entitled "Effective Use of Courtroom Techology: A Lawyers's Guide to Pretrial and Trial" and "PowerPointTM for Litigators", both of which are written by Deanne C. Siemer, Frank D. Rothschild, Donald H. Beskind and Anthony J. Bocchino and published by the National Institute of Trial Advocacy. Both books come with a CD-ROM that has useful templates, and they are filled with excellent practical advice that allows you to anticipate and overcome potential objections to what you want to do.
