Overhead projectors are the draft horses of multimedia presentation equipment. They are sturdy, easy to use, and extremely effective for leaving lasting impressions with juries. But, in the wrong hands or without proper training, an overhead projector can produce a multimedia disaster at trial. Before you or your AV technician rolls your overhead projector through the courthouse doors for your next trial, remember these few quick tips for success.
- Preparation. We’re frequently surprised by how many lawyers neglect to practice their overhead projector presentations before trial. Preparation is the key to success with an overhead projector. Don’t roll the projector cart into court with the assumption that all will go well. At least one week prior to trial, power up the overhead, treat your staff to Hardee’s, and do a dry run of your presentation. Feedback from colleagues (already thankful for the free grub) will be invaluable.
- Transparency Transition. Clumsy transitions between transparencies can lead to jury disengagement. It can be jarring for jurors, who are likely transfixed by your presentation, to be brought quickly out of their reveries by a single dropped or mishandled transparency. Our advice? Practice, practice, practice. Videotape your presentation to highlight potential transition errors and to improve the throw-down of your transparencies. Better yet, hire an assistant for trial whose job it is to hand you the transparencies on your cue.
- Animation Fail. Believe me, I’ve seen my share of attorneys who cut out stick figures with construction paper, add a popsicle stick, and attempt to recreate an automobile accident through animation on an overhead projector. Don’t go there. If you insist on animation, keep it simple and use professional stencils to create your characters and props. While popsicle sticks work fine, consider using a more professional presentation tool, such as a shish-ka-bob skewer. Better yet, use your hands and fingers to animate shadow puppets on the big screen. Simple steps like this work well to recreate important scenes in your case. Overhead projection animations do work, and often work extremely well. But done the wrong way, they can backfire and lead to snickers among the jurors and a damaging comment from the judge.
With the right amount of preparation and top quality transparencies, you can master the skill of overhead projector presentations at trial. But don’t expect it to go right the first time. While you may encounter your share of initial miscues, you will eventually be rewarded.
As an experienced trial attorney, I am obviously well-versed on the ins and outs of an overhead projector, but one issue that I have always struggled with is the form of wet cloth to use for wiping marker scribbles during trial. For the common situation when I am drawing a picture of the accident scene, and my client’s testimony changes and I need to erase some lane-lines from the road or move the location of where the pedestrian was jaywalking, the wet cloth is a necessity. But what is the best one to use? Using a stack of wet paper towels seems most efficient, since I get a clean cloth to use every time. But juries may be more impressed with a standard bathroom washcloth, since it reduces waste. Only problem with that is the fact that the washcloth will invariably get dirty over time, which appears less professional than the wet paper towel stack.
Great issue, and one we’ve looked at extensively. Bottom line? Baby wet wipes. Generally, the best one is Huggies Gentle Care Sensitive Baby Wipes, though others do well in a pinch. The nice thing about baby wipes too is that you can place the package conspicuously up on the AV cart during your presentation, raising the presumption that you’re a family man with a baby at home. Jurors dig that. Though, a word of caution for some female attorneys, as some (and the number thankfully is diminishing) jurors may react negatively to the Huggies being up on the podium with you. These jurors may believe you are sacrificing the care of an infant in pursuit of a professional career. As with many things, proper and careful pretrial voir dire should allow you to identify if you have any these nudniks on the jury.
I find that background music — fitting the tone of the trial — adds fluidity to the overhead presentation. Wagner works well for violent crimes. A children’s choir chanting Humpty Dumpty is excellent for civil negligence cases.
It’s a great idea, just watch out for the difficulty of foundational challenges that take up an enormous amount of time and research. For example, try arguing the foundation for allowing the Beatles’ “Let it Be” in a trial about a boundary dispute. Or Katy Perry’s “Firework” in an insurance defense case involving allegations of arson. It’s a tough thing to get into play.