Chapter 11

• Jurisdiction: United States

Chapter 11 Professional Technicians and Visuals Designers

"Good design is clear thinking made visible, bad design is stupidity made visible."

Edward Tufte, American educator and statistician

A. Professionals

You may decide to employ professional trial technicians to handle the hardware and software tasks and/or designers to create litigation visuals. This chapter discusses the circumstances under which parties may decide to enlist the services of these professionals. It covers what experienced trial technicians can offer as well as those offered by companies that create litigation visuals and how much those services can cost. Further, in addition to those already provided throughout the book, this chapter provides examples of graphics that professional designers can provide and websites that you can visit in order to examine other examples of litigation graphics. Finally, we explain how the legal team can coordinate with these professionals, and in doing so, build an effective litigation team.

B. Professional Technicians

1. Decision to Employ

An experienced trial technician can provide the following services, among others: store and organize data with software, and sit in during pretrial alternative dispute resolution sessions or trial to operate the technology that will retrieve and display the visuals.

The trial team's decision to employ a professional trial technician may be driven by a lack of confidence in its ability to operate the technology, or a simple recognition that hiring a trial technician allows it to place greater focus on the trial itself without having to worry about the potential for technical glitches, or other similar issues. In cases that involve many exhibits, it is much easier to leave it in the hands of a professional. Additionally, if the trial attorney has a technical problem when running his or her own presentation and attempts to try to fix the problem while continuing to talk, the result can be problematic: the lawyer can lose a train of thought; his or her confidence; and a strong presence before the jury. There is simply too much for the trial team to worry about, and many lawyers decide they do not want to add technology to the list.

The decision whether to employ an outside professional for trial services support (strategy, graphics, or technology) typically revolves around the size and complexity of the case as well as the potential risk or exposure (or demand). Careful evaluation of the cost/benefit ratio should be taken into consideration when looking to employ outside service professionals. Adding a trial support person is analogous to adding another staff member, such as a senior paralegal or an associate, to the team. Costs for such professionals vary greatly mostly due to experience, but other factors such as geographic location, client-driven budget concerns, and out-of-pocket costs (whether passed on to the end client or absorbed by the service professional). For a qualified consultant, you should expect to pay around $200 per hour, although there can be flexibility around the dollars charged per hour, the amount of hours charged per day (not-to-exceed), fixed-fee scenarios, absorption of out-of-pocket hard costs, and so on. A good technical presentation consultant is well worth the cost as trial is not where you should be looking to cut corners and shave a few dollars off per hour as the smooth and seamless presentation of evidence is paramount to making a good case and maximizing time and efficiency for the jury.¹

The costs of hiring a trial technician are not always a barrier. For example, in some cases, the parties on each side agree to share the costs of a trial technician, who can publish exhibits and create callouts and highlights. If the trial technician is simply handling the in-court technology and not serving in any kind of advocacy role, such as creating persuasive visuals for one side, there is no downside to such an approach.

2. Teamwork

It is critical that the legal team and the technicians be coordinated with one another to form an effective trial team. Teamwork begins with the legal team's dedication to and respect for today's technology and the technicians who operate it. This is a truism whether the legal team is relying on in-house technicians or professional technicians. The trial lawyer should bear in mind that if anything goes wrong with the technology, it will not be the technician that the judge and jury will blame and hold accountable. It will be the lawyer. Consequently, it is in the lawyer's best interest that the technician has what is needed...