RLF’s Use Of Digital Technology

click here for example slip & fall presentation
click here for example auto accident presentation

The two PowerPoint presentations on RLF's home page are taken from two actual cases handled by RLF that were given at mediation sessions with defense lawyers and adjusters present. Both cases settled at mediation. They have been edited to protect client privacy and a voiceover added. The voiceover is an edited version of the arguments made by Mr. Rodgers at the mediation. The actual presentations also included video deposition excerpts that are not included here due to space and time limitations.

A law firm's power to persuade is critical in persuading adjusters at settlement conferences and jurors at trial about the merits of your case. A smaller, plaintiff-oriented law firm that makes full use of the power of the information age can overcome the physical size advantages that the large, defense-oriented law firms typically possess. The Rodgers Law Firm is equipped to take full advantage of modern computer-assisted digital litigation technology. Here's how:

1. All depositions of defendants and experts are videotaped by in-house videographers using two Sony digital camcorders. Each camcorder has '3-chip' high resolution capabilities and, unlike analog video cameras, does not require additional, intrusive lighting sources that can distract the witness.

2. Video depositions are edited in-house using Adobe Premiere real-time, non-linear digital editing software. This software allows RLF personnel to successively edit and re-edit deposition testimony to eliminate all long silences and other matters that a juror would see as wasting his or her time by not getting to the point quickly. This 'tight' editing makes the video testimony more effective at keeping juror interest.

3. Analog photographic images, including medical X-rays, MRI's, and CT scans, are captured digitally into RLF computers either using in-house photographers with a digital camera and a USB feed into RLF computers, or scanning the existing digital files into computer files using high resolution scanners.

4. Medical records, accident reports, written witness statements, and other paper documents are captured digitally using high resolution scanners.

5. PowerPoint-based slide and video presentations are created in-house on RLF computers for trials and mediation by artfully combining the video depositions, photographs, medical films, and documents gathered to prove your case.

6. RLF personnel then 'burn' the final presentations onto individual DVDs or CDs, depending on file size. By using Microsoft's Media Encoder 9 software, The RLF legal team is able to reduce a very large video file to a size that allows CDs to be used as the output media without loss of image quality. Most computers have CD players and many do not have DVD players, and DVD format compatibility is a problem that is not often seen on CDs. These final presentation disks can be sent to the defense lawyer and insurance company adjuster weeks before the mediation date so that the defense, especially the adjuster, has enough time to watch the presentation and calculate the full settlement value of the case.

7. PowerPoint presentations are shown at trial and settlement conferences using laptop computers and portable data monitors.

8. Depending on the facts of a case, other software available to supplement the standard PowerPoint slide / video presentation, including:
a. Casemap, for outlining the case.
b. Timemap, for showing detailed time chronologies or presenting at one time the testimony of 2 witnesses whose testimony conflicts so that the jury can understand where the conflict arises and which version is more credible based on corroborating evidence.
c. Sanction, trial presentation software that displays the typed video deposition transcript on the screen synchronized with the video testimony so that the jury can either read the transcript or watch the video or alternate between the two.

RLF's legal team takes great pride in the fact that all of the above is done in-house to allow corrections to be made 'on the fly' if needed during trial and just before mediations and do not have the risk of dealing with outside vendors that may unexpectedly prove to be unreliable.
Should the occasion arise, Ben welcomes the opportunity to give potential clients an in-house tour of these capabilities and have them meet the RLF legal team.

“ITS THE SIZE OF THE FIGHT IN THE DOG, NOT THE SIZE OF THE DOG IN THE FIGHT, THAT MATTERS MOST”


COPYRIGHT 1994 - 2007 CLIFFORD B. RODGERS
LAST UPDATED: JULY 3, 2007