Have you ever heard the phrase, “seeing is believing”? Well, when it comes to a courtroom, that phrase is law. From the day a client walks through your door and asks for help, your primary focus is to demonstrate the strength of your client’s position and the weakness of their opponent’s position. How? Physical evidence, of course.

Over the past few years, how lawyers have gone about persuading has changed… and drastically. So then I ask, how many of you have used the following exhibits to present your case in the last year? Have you…

1. Wrote evidence of a statement on a large writing pad or dry erase board?
2. Displayed important documents or photographs mounted on boards?
3. Published documents and handed them to the jurors to pass around?
4. Read an original testimony from a transcript?

If you answered “yes,” I must ask why. These my be traditional tools of communication that were at one time effective, but the people you are trying to persuade probably haven’t used one of those tools for a long time. They are chatted via text or using social media to post and message back and forth. As the way people communicate changes, so should the way your law firm presents cases.

New technologies allow lawyers to use laptops, tablets, etc. to simultaneously display and annotate evidence on the monitors in the jury box and around the courtroom. Space restrictions and static exhibits no longer limit lawyers, and there are many more advantages, too. According to The Jury Expert™, here are five of the top benefits:

1. Time Savings – Studies have indicated that use of such systems cuts trial time from 25-50%, leaving more time for more clients and more billable hours.

2. Cost Effectiveness – Hand in hand with saving time goes saving dollars. Manpower and paper trails can be cut significantly.

3. Flexibility – Lawyers can add or take away documents with just a touch, whether exhibits are objected to or no longer relevant to the case. They can also “call witnesses to the stand” via videoconferencing. They don’t even have to be in the courtroom to participate and help with your case.

4. Interactive Capabilities – The ability to enlarge, annotate, start and stop instantly, and “build” information through graphic sequences contributes to the increased interaction between presenter and audience, making for a more interesting and persuasive presentation.

5. Control/ease – User-friendly electronic tools allow attorneys to successfully orchestrate the presentation of a broad array of evidence, while simplifying complex issues.

It is clear that having interactive technology and communicating in ways the jurors are used to communicating will positively impact your case. Is technology helping your law firm inside the courtroom? Let us know how.