An e-mail arrived from Thomas G. Oakes Associates about their services and software to support trial presentations.
Oakes’ spiel is that trial presentation technology can help the judge and jury visualize and understand your story. It lets you compare items, such as documents, photographs, or videos. You can retrieve and display impeaching testimony or documents at a moment’s notice. The firm can maintain depositions, exhibits and streaming video servers for your convenience. They can create Trialbooks, TrialDirector Indexes, Bates Stamped files and tabulate your presentation binders. For massive cases, or massively important ones, resources such as these can be invaluable.
Given the huge costs of trials, the scarcity of posts here on this blog regarding the topic seems odd. Or not odd, since trials happen rarely (See my post of Oct. 27, 2005: Fulbright & Jaworski notes 60% of cases settle during trial; Oct. 27, 2005: percentage of trials that go to verdict; and Dec. 17, 2008: roughly half of cases that go to trial settle during the trial.).
Even more rarely are they crucial enough for law departments to invest in unusual management approaches (See my post of May 20, 2005: burn rate jumps during trial; July 4, 2006: trial consultants; Dec. 12, 2007: shadow juries and their costs; Feb. 4, 2008: alleged unwillingness of in-house counsel to go to trial except for very important cases; May 6, 2009: costs do not rise linearly as a case nears trial; June 14, March 2, 2010: trial graphics department at Weil, Gotshal; and Jan. 30, 2011: national coordinating counsel help pick which lawsuits to take to trial.).