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Practice Tip: Is Your Case Worth Displaying?

By G. Christopher Ritter
February 24, 2005

Let me start by assuring you that I have nothing against using high-end technology in the courtroom. Like many who read this column, my colleagues and I make our livings designing state-of-the-art demonstrative evidence and other teaching tools for use in complex civil and criminal cases. Why is it so important for me to let you know this? Because I want you to fully appreciate where I am coming from when I state the major premise of this article: We need to help trial lawyers make better choices when it comes to how they display material in court. An increasing number of lawyers are relying on high-end technology as a crutch and using these display methods without thinking about whether it makes sense to do so or whether their cases are better as a result.

Some lawyers believe that all the money spent on technology can substitute for carefully preparing their case. These lawyers forget a basic truth. They forget an ill-conceived message does not get better merely because they display it using high-end technology. The only thing that lawyers get when using expensive technology to display a crummy message is a more expensive crummy message.

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