Defusing a Powerful Animation: Using Your Opponents Exhibit Against Them
I found this Law Technology News article on Defusing Powerful Animation (free registration required) from Monica Bay’s blog, The Common Scold. It talks about a pedestrian / car case in California where the pedestrian suffered brain damage and the plaintiff’s attorney did a video animation / simulation.
King used PC Crash software, which helps users create 3-D collision simulations and reconstructions. His animation was used as the cornerstone of the plaintiff's case, Skrzypek explained, and was based almost completely on defendant Dillon's deposition answers.
It was clear that the plaintiff's side thought the recreation would be very damaging to her credibility, he said.
But the defense team managed to defuse the impact of the animation. Langley played the animation in slow motion throughout his cross of the reconstructionist. He also played it during his closing argument, stopping it at key points to question the assumptions the plaintiff used creating it.
"His ability to replay the animation and put our side's spin on it undercut the plaintiff's representation that the animation represented how the accident truly happened," said Skrzypek.
Use your opponent’s evidence against him. That’s the what they teach in jujitsu. It works in the law, too.
