Graphic Exhibits: part of legal malpractice expert witness testimony

Lawyers tend to forget that even documents can be part of the expert's testimony through graphics.

Sure, you can use a computer and PowerPoint.  But we suggest even better is the use of a poster board that the expert can get up and point to and show some energy in the process of teaching.

Look at the following.   Do you quickly and easily see three suggestions? 

Hopefully you learned my three suggestions above. If you agree that it is powerful to state your case graphically, then be sure to "make documents interesting."  The most effective way to make a dry document come alive is by showing the full page in issue with a "pull out visual" of the part you want to highlight.  It assures the jury that you are not taking things out of context, because you have the full page available to them (even if in small type).  It's much more interesting to the judge and jury than simply  showing a copy of the entire page, with no compelling visual interest to read it.

Now let's talk about time visuals in expert witness testimony legal malpractice cases.  Missed deadline are a frequent source of legal malpractice claims.  Let your expert make them understandable --- and rememberable -- by using a timeline.  A color-coded, powerful, CaseSoft Timeline™ can show blocks of time available and deadlines missed, so that everyone can quickly grasp the expert's analysis of time.  In a missed time deadline malpractice case, if your expert does not have a bold visual, suggest it to him/her.

In proving the underlying case, it is sometimes good to have exhibits to show pertinent facts that would have been overwhelming successful, but for the negligence.  For example the graphic in the left center above is so much more successful than mere words to state that a spike in temperature was caused by the defective product in the underlying case.  It makes persuasive your expert's opinion about what the jury in the underlying case would have understood about the product involved.

We better remember what we see.  We usually feel something is more reasonable if we see it in addition to hearing it.

The expert you hire should be able to present expert testimony, showing key documents and time sequences, in an effective manner.

Bucklin is an expert at effective teaching through testimony, and using aids. Bucklin uses graphic means of making his opinion clear to the jury

Continue reading by clicking here.