Visual Evidence: Helping Your Attorney Client Succeed

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Excerpt:

Pat Iyer: If an LNC is marketing this service to an attorney, what are some of the benefits that the LNC can stress to the attorney in working with a nurse as opposed to going directly to a company that does demonstrative evidence?

Karen Haviland: For example, the animation that I just used, I got involved with one of my clients because he received well over a $7,000 bill for an animation that was not at all what he wanted, and needless to say, he was a little upset. So I got involved on the back end by working with the animation company just because I knew the case inside and out. I was describing the injury, and describing what points the attorney was trying to get across and refocusing the entire animation to get the product that the attorney wanted, which ended up in costing him a lot more money. On the backend, had he involved me with the animation company right from the get go, I would have made sure that did not happen.

He ended up getting a $15,000 bill as opposed to he probably would have had an original $6,000 and had the product that he wanted. So he learned a valuable lesson. He just handed them an outline of the case and said, “I want an animation for this.” Well, they submitted something that was totally not what he wanted. So the legal nurse consultant can help with those issues and in the end save him the attorney time because he is not wasting his time with phone calls, such as “Well, do you want this, do you want that?” He needs to be worried about getting ready for his trial and the legal nurse consultant can help with the other issues in the case.

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Karen Haviland answered these questions, and more:

• How did you get started in this field?
• What are we talking about when we are discussing visual evidence?
• Do you see requests from defense firms for visual evidence?
• What are the advantages of using visual evidence?
• What types of learning styles exist out there and how do we most effectively reach those people with different learning styles?
• How can taking photographs or taking a piece of medical equipment and passing it around through the jury be an effective strategy for those people who like to learn by touching and handling things?
• What types of exhibits are the ones that an LNC can be most helpful in terms of helping the attorney develop?
• If an LNC is marketing this service to an attorney, what are some of the benefits that the LNC can stress to the attorney in working with a nurse as opposed to going directly to a company that does demonstrative evidence?
• Does the attorney ever come to you and say, “Can you get me somebody who can do a computer animation?” or does the attorney come and ask for other types of experts that might be involved in preparing these exhibits?
• Suppose an attorney came to you and said “I need to have a day in the life video done”, for example. How would you find a video person to do that kind of a project?
• Have you contracted with people to run equipment in the courtroom for you?
• I am constantly encountering attorneys who are reluctant to try to do anything with technology because it’s really intimidating to them. Do you have any strategies for working with attorneys who express those fears that we have talked about, about something going wrong and stopping the trial and getting stuck?
• I know that one of the things that the attorney has to do from the legal perspective is to make sure that the material that’s going to be shown to the jury is admissible. Could you comment on what a legal nurse consultant needs to know about that issue?
• What are with computer generated charts? What does that term mean to you and can you describe to us how they would be used and some points on putting them together?
• How do you solve the problem of a checklist chart not showing up on an Elmo?
• How do you avoid equipment placement problems in the courtroom?
• Can you give us any tips in terms of putting together the computer generated charts that we have been talking about, whether there are timelines or chronologies, any suggestions for making them clear or more effective?
• Is there any particular software that you recommend?
• What experience have you had with working with flipcharts in the courtroom?
• How do you protect your exhibits from the adversary attorney?
• Tell us a little bit about putting together multimedia modules or interactive presentations.
• How do you respond to last minute requests for visual evidence?
• Can you comment on the impact of medical photos on the jury?
• What are your comments on selecting photographs and the quality of the picture?
• Any thoughts on helping the attorney with putting together a video presentation?
• What are some examples of the most effective visual evidence that you have put together and tell us what that story was about?
• Please comment about the courtroom itself in terms of how that might influence what type of exhibit you would use.
• Please comment further on how a legal nurse consultant can market this service and specifically some things that would help bring in for the LNC this type of business?
• Do you have any tips on putting together information for a tradeshow? How would you most effectively show the work product that you have put together?

Karen M. Haviland, RN, BSN, CLNC is founder and owner of Case Solid Legal Nurse Consulting Services in Maryland. Her background includes over 20 years in Emergency Department, Critical Care, Cardiology and Administration. She started her full time CLNC practice in 2001 after resigning her full time position as Director of Emergency Services. She now consults full-time for some of the largest medical malpractice and personal injury firms in the Baltimore-Washington area. Karen’s strongest expertise is in the area of discovery. In one of her first cases, her assistance in the discovery phase helped her attorney-client win a $5.6 million verdict.

After Karen’s first plaintiff trial exhibit in Baltimore City Maryland landed a victory, the exhibit impressed the other side so much that her next exhibit was for the defense. Trial exhibits are now a large part of her practice and she has expanded into a firm outside of her home and hired three employees. Her company handles medical malpractice, personal injury and disability cases.

Moderator: Patricia Iyer is President of Med League Support Services, Inc, established in 1989.

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Read more about the subject:

From Patricia Iyer MSN RN LNCC, Stephen Appelbaum, CEP EPIC, and John M. Parisi Esq, “Trial Exhibits: Legal and Strategic Considerations”, in Patricia Iyer (Editor), Medical Legal Aspects of Pain and Suffering.

The plaintiff attorney’s purpose in using exhibits to present damages is to persuade the jury that the event or circumstances that gave rise to the injury had a demonstrable impact on the plaintiff. The defense attorney’s purpose is to use exhibits to negate, minimize, or shift attention away from the claims of pain and suffering. Demonstrative exhibits work because they:

• Clearly and concisely educate the viewer (minimizing language, educational, or age barriers)
• Give the presenter control of presenting specific information,
• Emphasize the damages
• Emphasize or de-emphasize an emotional response
• Create a long-lasting visual memory, whether positive or negative.

Emotional appeal to the jurors is not enough if the attorney does not have evidence to satisfy the jurors. Jurors are impressed with hard data in the evidence. Demonstrative evidence organizes medical bills, photographs, x-rays and other data that jurors can see and touch. This is among the most persuasive evidence they will receive. Jurors use the hard data to support the unconscious, emotional decision about how they desire the case to turn out.

Read more about Medical Legal Aspects of Pain and Suffering.

Other articles:
Developing powerful exhibits
Medical Illustrations
Pain and suffering reports
Presenting demonstrative evidence: What is right for you?