Our Services: Power Point
See also our article: Tips
for Creating PowerPoint Presentations (pdf).
Power Point: A Persuasive Tool
 The
typical juror, judge or mediator increasingly wants to see
the points the trial attorney is making, rather than simply
hearing them. Years of conditioning by the news and print
media have trained us to rely on visual images in our quest
to understand information. Power Point, a versatile presentation
software program sold by Microsoft, is moving onto laptop
computers and into the hands of trial attorneys in order
to inform and persuade the trier of fact.
Capabilities of the program
Most attorneys are
familiar with the traditional use of Power Point to create
slides for a lecture. Speakers using this program typically
create text slides with bulleted items. More advanced use
of the program may include clip art, animation (words that
drop in from the top of the screen or fade from view), sound
effects, or other special effects.
Scanned photographs, images
or charts created in Microsoft Excel or other similar programs
can be incorporated into Power Point.
The output of slides created
in Power Point is equally diversified. They can be printed
for a paper copy on a color or black and white printer,
used as clear transparencies on a projector, or viewed by
using a laptop computer with or without a projector.
Use for mediation or court
A paper or electronic
settlement brochure is enhanced with slides created in Power
Point. Essential issues of liability and damages can be
presented in an easy to follow format. Recently Med League
helped an attorney create a Power Point presentation that
was divided into four parts: key details of the plaintiff’s
life, a timeline of the medical events surrounding the liability,
the opinions of the plaintiff’s liability experts,
and a summary of the damages. This presentation was instrumental
in obtaining a settlement in the high six figures.
The laptop computer can be
brought to the courtroom to present these types of information:
-
Color photographs of the
plaintiff
-
Photographs of the equipment
needed to provide care to the plaintiff
-
Key points to cover in
an opening or closing argument
-
Points from the expert
witness’s publications, which contradict testimony
or written opinion
-
Photographs, maps or diagrams
of the accident site
-
Pieces of evidence
Advantages of Power Point
Power Point is compatible
with the other programs in the Microsoft Office Suite, making
it easier to add text from other programs such as Excel
or Word. The text may then be reformatted to create a slide
in Power Point. Changes using commands such as cut, paste,
bullet points, font and page setup can be easily made because
these related programs are part of the Microsoft Office
Suite.
Power Point has within it a
portable program that can be installed on a computer to
allow you to view the slide show. This does not allow the
presenter to make changes in the slides, but if hard disk
space is at a premium, or the laptop has limited RAM, the
final product can be displayed.
Since Power Point slide presentations
typically exceed the capacity of a floppy disk, the computer
used to present a Power Point slide show should have a CD-ROM
Drive or Zip drive. Med League Support Service’s computers
have these drives, as well as color laser printers for use
in printing color transparencies or paper copies of Power
Point slides, and scanners for adding photographs or graphic
artwork.
See also our article: Tips
for Creating PowerPoint Presentations (pdf). |
