From: Liberation 4/19/2002
“It is devastating proof in the courtroom,”
says one American Lawyer. “More so than the testimony of any expert’”
adds a colleague. For several years now, the work of more and more high-tech,
web-based design companies are making their way into American courts.
The use of such companies dates back to the 1991 San Francisco trial
of Jim Mitchell, the so-called King of Porn, for the murder of his brother,
Artie. At the request of the defendant, a design firm set up a web-site
with an animation of the reenactment of the murder. Jim Mitchell was
later acquitted of murder. All the witnesses of this case agree; the
virtual crime scene had a decisive impact on the judgment of Jim Mitchell.
Since then, companies specializing in this
type of graphics have multiplied in the United States. Among them, Animators
at Law, one of the oldest, is also the most significant. On the welcome
page of their web site (http://www.animators.com) there is a list of
clients that Animators has worked for in the past. In addition to AOL
and the Red Cross, one finds some of the largest and most influential
law firms in the country, including Morrison and Forrester and Latham
and Watkins. Among their many 
accomplishments,
Animators is proud to have allowed a man to win his lawsuit against
an airline whose plane crashed, resulting in the death of 5 of his family
members. “More than any one simple exhibit, our work made it possible
for the jury to relive the three minutes of anguish before the crash,
and thus better understand the horror,” explains Ken Lopez, President
and CEO of Animators. In the same vein, Lopez tells the importance of
the work they did in the case of a medical malpractice suit. “Whereas
the plaintiff had lost in the first round of court, we were able to
produce, in detail, an animation of how the operation in question should
normally proceed. That animation, along with testimony from an expert,
allowed the plaintiff to make their case clearly and win the suit.”
To illustrate their effectiveness, Animators
at Law put a series of courtroom animations and exhibits prepared for
various cases on their web site. For even the most recalcitrant of attorneys,
these cyber-lawyers explain that “in a country where the first
source of information is television, evidence like animations and visual
exhibits will have inevitably more impact than writing or testimony.”
This same argument is often used by those
opposed to the mainstreaming of such courtroom technology. They fear
that the force of the animated images could totally eclipse other legal
arguments that might be brought forth. One lawyer explains “Everyone
is entertained by a good animation on television, but that is no reason
to let Bugs Bunny have the last word in the courtroom.”
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