Product Liability Trial Exhibits

You have a situation where a product hurt or killed a client. How do you convey to a judge and jury that the item’s defective design or deviation from intended functioning was the cause? Doing so may seem overwhelmingly challenging; however, the product liability trial exhibits we produce at Advocacy Digital Media can help you effectively convey design, function, and even damages in a way that is proven to be memorable among those charged with reaching verdicts and deciding on settlement awards—judges and jurors.

Product liability trial exhibits are effective in explaining complex matters and supporting witness testimony. Let’s have a conversation about the courtroom demonstratives we can produce for you to present at trial. Call or contact us online today.

How Does Real and Demonstrative Evidence Differ?

When discussing product liability trial exhibits, we feel that it provides a better context if we start by describing the difference between real and demonstrative evidence. There can be some overlap between these two types of evidence in that one involves a tangible or physical object, respectively.

However, when you really sort out what constitutes either tangible or physical objects per acceptable legal norms, judges would typically view items elemental to the case, such as the following, as real evidence in a civil trial:

• Murder weapons (in the case of a physical assault)
• Photographs
• Narcotics or medications (if an overdose, defective drug, or pharmaceutical error occurred)

In short, real evidence must be genuine—like the defective item itself—and materially relevant to a case for its admission and use in the courtroom. Additionally, it’s necessary to lay a foundation for its use at trial and to explain the chain of custody of it.

Demonstrative evidence is what we create here at Advocacy Digital Media and can consist of the following:

• Illustrations that align with and help jurors visualize witness testimony
• Diagrams
• Charts
• Graphs
• Animations
• Reconstructions
• Maps, such as ones that show where an injury incident occurred

The key with demonstrative evidence is that it must accurately reflect facts. It’s not uncommon for personal injury attorneys like yourself to utilize demonstrative evidence not only to illustrate expert witness testimony about how the product liability incident occurred, but also as a way to visually depict the extent of their client’s injuries or the financial harm their injury incident caused.

Effectively Using Demonstratives in Product Liability Case Trials

As you’re aware, there’s nothing quite as impactful as bringing a defective or dangerous item itself into the courtroom as tangible evidence in a product liability case. However, there are situations where, due to perishability, toxicity, destructibility, and other factors, doing so may not be possible.

That’s when product liability trial exhibits can particularly come in handy. They can allow you to show how a product looked and worked and also how it made the user sick or hurt them. Most commonly, this occurs when a witness is on the stand, providing their expert testimony about these different factors.

However, you can also use this demonstrative evidence to document damages. For example, you might be able to show a calendar depicting how many days your client missed work due to a product hurting them. Furthermore, these trial exhibits can visually depict:

• Press releases announcing recalls
• Past issues and timelines associated with reported issues
• Answers to interrogatories

In short, you can and should consider depicting anything you want to stick with or resonate with jurors in a product liability trial exhibit.

Visual Aids That Demonstrate Product Function and Design

Our Advocacy Digital Media team has experience successfully creating product liability trial exhibits that demonstrate concepts such as the following:

• Schematics or blueprints that demonstrate a multi-dimensional, static perspective of the product
• Acceptable uses of the product (per packaging instructions)
• The product’s functioning under different conditions like power source, weather conditions, etc.

It’s even possible for our animators to produce graphics demonstrating how a designer or manufacturer’s choice not to include a safety guard on the product, for example, resulted in unnecessary harm.

So, to make things clear, we can produce illustrations and animations of the 2D and 3D variety to demonstrate product design, including how flaws left users vulnerable to getting hurt. We can additionally produce trial exhibits that show intended product functioning and how, despite your client using it as intended, it left them hurt.

Effectively Engaging a Jury Using Product Liability Graphics

Captivating and maintaining your jurors’ attention is critical to ensuring the information you or your witnesses convey sticks with them. Retention can directly affect whether the jury decides to award damages in your client’s case.

Our trial exhibits, which include our product liability illustrations and animations, showcase data and facts accurately using the latest and best in graphic design and computer-aided design technology. It brings information presented to life, keeping your audience engaged or invested in what you’re presenting so they remember it when deliberating a verdict in your case.

Imagine being a juror yourself and having a lawyer present 2D or 3D animations or illustrations as product liability trial exhibits to show how a product looked before its failure, your and your witnesses’ theories about how or why it failed, the injuries it caused, and even representations of the cost of future medical treatment. You can probably tell this would be a lot more memorable or impactful in the minds of jurors.

Let us help you memorialize what happened, causing your client to suffer injuries. Contact us at Advocacy Digital Media to discuss the facts and data you have on hand that you want to display graphically in the courtroom, and we’ll let you know more about the product liability trial exhibits we can produce that effectively convey the information you want jurors to retain.