(October 13, 2022) - John Reikes of technical animation studio High Impact discusses how visual content can enhance litigation strategy, especially in jury trials or matters involving complex medical or scientific information.

High Impact created several animations for federal prosecutors in the criminal trial¹ over George Floyd's killing, which resulted in jurors finding three former Minneapolis police officers guilty of civil rights violations.

Westlaw Today asked Reikes about developing and deploying visual aids in legal proceedings.

John Reikes: About 2/3 of the population are visual learners, and visuals can improve comprehension by 400%. Without providing clear visuals, there is significant risk that jurors will not properly understand the facts of the case. Where the jurors do not understand the facts, the case is ultimately being left to chance.

To the question of how visuals can help lawyers win cases …. If an attorney has a strong case with favorable facts, visuals will help ensure the jury properly understands those facts or mechanisms and may help the jurors empathize with the individuals involved in the case. This may provide the necessary push a lawyer needs to ensure a favorable outcome.

JR: Where visuals will depict a lower-complexity situation and the damages at issue are on the lower end of the spectrum, a still illustration may be enough to properly educate the audience. A client's timeline and the amount of information they want to convey also play into the decision of illustration versus animation, as animations involve a more complex process and require more time. Nonetheless, animations may better enable the jury to understand the mechanics of a situation and can be more effective at creating an emotional connection between the jury and the individuals being depicted.

In practice, the decision between an illustration and animation is most often driven by budget (as animations are typically more costly to produce). Regardless of medium, we pride ourselves on producing high-quality, technically accurate visuals for our clients' needs.

JR: For most of our projects, the team works closely with the expert who will be using the visuals to support their testimony. That expert guides our team to ensure our visuals are factually accurate.

Our artists have specialized training and experience to help ensure they are building accurate visuals. Approximately half of our artists have master's degrees in biomedical visualization. Other members of the team have expertise in a wide range of specialized areas, including lighting, texture, architecture and engineering. We also have in-house medical professionals to provide additional guidance.

JR: The attorneys who hire us are typically experienced trial attorneys who know the art of making a case understandable for jurors. Many of them work with jury consultants to further hone this skill. Through years of working with such clients and iterating through projects from proof to completion, High Impact's team has developed significant experience in this area. As mentioned above, our team has specialized experience that allows them to make the complex simple through their understanding of medical and scientific facts, as well as their close collaboration with experts.

JR: High Impact does not provide "hot seat" services, so our team is typically not present during a trial to see jurors' reactions. We primarily rely on our clients to provide us this feedback.

JR: From time to time, our exhibits face challenges, but the vast majority of visuals we produce are able to be used at trial.

JR: We feel it is important for our medical illustrations to match the individual being portrayed to ensure a juror will properly connect the depictions to the case at hand, rather than something theoretical or hypothetical. To that end, we typically match our depictions at least to major physical features of the individual, such as race, gender, age, weight, build, hair color, etc. In some cases, we may also include more unique individual features, such as tattoos.

JR: Most of our animations are delivered without sound to allow testifying experts and attorneys to speak to the jury during playback. In some cases, we develop interactive presentations so the attorney or expert can control elements of playback. This frees up the speaker to be able to cover the material without being fixed to a predefined timeline (as is the case with a traditional animation).

JR: From what we can see, the use of high-end visuals in litigation is on the rise. High Impact expects the most growth in the 3D animation space, as the general public (including jurors) have become accustomed to seeing information presented in this rich format. While VR is extremely useful in certain contexts (such as cases involving visual impairment), we do not expect it to become a common tool in most litigation. VR allows the viewer to control the camera in a 3D environment in a way that may be concerning for one or both parties to a suit. Additionally, some scenes (such as a recreation of a serious vehicle crash) may be quite traumatic for jurors to consume via VR. That said, we've seen VR as an effective tool in mediation, where the situation is a bit more flexible than a trial.

JR: Unless the amount in controversy is low or the facts aren't helpful to your client's case (the latter being a situation no attorney wants to be in), visuals are an excellent way to ensure jurors understand and remember the key points of your case. Pretrial, visuals used in demand letters and mediations help those not versed in the medical or scientific facts of the case to better understand the points at issue, potentially moving the case outcome in the right direction. Visuals also help jurors make an emotional connection to your case.

1 United States v. Chauvin et al., No. 21-cr-108 (D. Minn.).