by Kenneth J. Lopez, J.D., President &
CEO
Q: Document Call-Outs are used in every trial
and their only function is to help the Judge or Jury extract key information
from a long document, right?
A: Wrong. The best document call-outs persuade. (see below)
Animators' Litigation Consultants and
Information Designers routinely use an age-old courtroom tool, the document
call-out, in a totally new way to help win more cases. I want to quickly
share with you the basics of our technique so that you may use it effectively
in your next trial or presentation.
Recently, Animators at Law was hired
by The U.S. Department of Justice to produce a group of trial exhibits
to defend against injury claims in a rescue helicopter landing. One
of these exhibits was what we call a persuasive document call-out. Its
purpose was to convey a clear visual argument rather than to be used,
as most document call-outs are, as a routine story telling device.
In consultation with our Animators at Law Information
Designers and our Litigation Consultants, all of whom are attorneys, we
created a document call-out with a stop sign shape.Ý The ABA has found
that combining and oral and visual messages, as done in this exhibit,
increases juror memory retention by at least 650 percent. This relatively
simple approach to highlighting the key policy in this case was designed
to leave the Court with a strong and clear message:
The hospital
where the helicopter landed did not follow its procedure to STOP traffic
and this failure,
not the Government's helicopter, caused the injury.
With talented lawyering and help from
effective exhibits such as this one, the Court ruled in the Government's
favor and awarded nothing to the Plaintiff.
To discuss upcoming litigation, learn
more about these techniques or to have a presentation made to your firm
on these and other subjects, please contact:
Annemarie Miano, J.D.
National Business Development Coordinator
Animators at Law
814 King Street, Second Floor
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
mailto:miano@animators.com
703.548.1799 x122
800.337.7697 x122
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Animators at Law
National Headquarters
814 King Street
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
800.337.7697
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