Introducing a Focus Trial Group to Forsensic Animations

As a personal injury attorney, it’s unlikely that you’ll impanel a focus group to hear every single case that you’re looking to present to a jury in civil court. However, if it appears that your client’s case may be heading to court, introducing a focus trial group to forensic animations may be worth considering first.

What Forensic Animations Are And Their Personal Injury Applications

A forensic animation is a type of computer-generated graphic that captures how an injury event, like a car accident, unfolded. Using this example, the demonstrative produced may show how:

• Drivers were minding their business, following the rules of the road leading up to the crash
• One of the motorists acted in a way that violated their duty of care, ultimately causing a collision
• The wreck soon occurred after the driver breached their duty

Car crashes aside, there are other applications of forensic animations in personal injury cases such as medical malpractice, product liability, premises liability, and other ones.

Why Use Forensic Animations With Mock Juries?

Do you find that jurors often sit up in their chairs and pay closer attention when you have a witness step down from the stand and demonstrate or reenact what it is that they went through or saw happen? Forensic animations can help you accomplish the same purpose, which is visually depicting what it is that you or the person testifying allege occurred.

More specifically, forensic animations can be particularly effective in helping a focus trial group draw their own conclusions about liability when it’s in dispute or the facts of the case are difficult to understand.

Also, as we’ve discussed before, trial graphics are particularly effective in helping jurors remember information presented in court. Doing this with your mock trial focus group can allow you to see how memorable eyewitness narratives are when accompanied by visuals, for example.

Valuable Feedback Focus Group Jurors Can Provide After Seeing Your Interactive Exhibits

Showing these courtroom demonstratives to mock jurors can also give you a better understanding of how well your case might resonate with an actual jury before they’re actually sat. To this end, you may want to impanel more than one jury, testing different case presentations with them — one perhaps using trial animations and another not. Seeing which presentation results in a verdict and monetary award in your client’s favor may help you best decide what approach to use when trying your client’s case in an actual courtroom.

Unlike seated juries, with focus group ones, you have an opportunity to solicit their feedback at different stages in your case’s presentation. Whether you wait until jurors are deliberating the case and watch to see what evidence they request or reference in their discussions, or you have panelists complete written surveys as you move from one portion of your presentation to the next, learning what resonated with them most can be quite informative.

If you do opt to administer surveys during the case’s presentation or at the conclusion of it, you may want to ask trail group members the following about your use of trial animations in particular:

• If the graphics are easy to read and follow
• How well they seemed to coincide with the facts presented or the witness’ testimony
• If the animations appeared to mischaracterize any information or made matters more challenging to make sense of (as opposed to easier)
• How effective were they in making the complex aspects of the case more digestible

The group’s responses to the above questions and any others you pose regarding your presentation, such as whether they thought that it was adequately paced and engaging, can go a long way to helping you understand the value the trial animation had and how to use it in your case for the best possible outcome for your client.

Getting Help in Preparing Forensic Animations To Present to a Trial Focus Group

While there are plenty of software tools where you can create almost any type of visual you want nowadays by yourself, using those options aren’t recommended. Why?

As you’re well aware, the goal is for any demonstratives produced to not only be admissible as evidence in the case but to help them understand what’s being presented and create a lasting impact — especially when accompanied by notetaking, according to a 2019 Frontiers in Psychology study published by the National Library of Medicine. This, in turn, can lead to a greater chance of them recalling that info when deliberating.

Let’s discuss your forensic animation needs and how our talented professionals can assist you in preparing carefully designed demonstratives to present to your focus trial group. Contact our team at Advocacy Digital Media either by phone or email for immediate service.