DOWNTOBUSINESS
DOWNTOBUSINESS
“ LET ME ILLUSTRATE THE POINT ” THE IMPORTANCE OF MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONS AND ANIMATIONS IN TRIAL
By Tim O ’ Brien and Stephen Mader
In any trial involving personal injury or wrongful death , experience shows that a simple acronym reminds the trial attorney of the channels of efforts he should employ to give his client the greatest likelihood of a successful verdict : E . L . F . Put simply , the trial lawyer must : Eliminate as many of the bad facts and as much of the “ white noise ” from the trial as he possibly can ; Leverage the undisputed facts to the best of his client ’ s advantage ; and Focus the juror ’ s attention on the right side of the disputed issues . While the E primarily is achieved through pretrial motions practice , the L and F persist through the trial from voir dire to the last word in closing argument .
22 x The Trial Lawyer