Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog
Every school has an Audio Visual Guy (The AV Guy). This was the person responsible for setting up the televisions, videos, slides, speakers, and other sort of audio/visual presentations in schools.
The AV Guy had a tiny office with no windows and poor ventilation. The AV office was once a broom closet, but was converted to accommodate the AV Guy with a small dated desk so that the AV Guy could sit in peace with all of the school’s AV supplies while simultaneously eating his lunch in privacy. The AV Guy’s office would be stacked to the wall with TVs, VCRs, speakers, mics, computers, receivers, and lots and lots of wires and cables! Oh those wires and cables. Some neatly folded. Others a tangled mess, hanging off walls, or anything else standing vertically. There were enough unkept wires and cables to cause a kid get tangled, and slip and fall. Perhaps the hazards of the AV office is why I became a personal injury lawyer, but that’s a another story.
In any event, have you given much thought as to why school’s have dedicated AV Guys? When you look at the position critically, they are not educators, nor are they custodians of the school. So why are education resources spent on AV personnel?
It’s because AV Guys are very important to schools and to educating students.
Students are more open to learning when they are being lectured to. Students need variation in their lessons. Some students are visual learners, and are more engaged when there are pictures, video, and other aids to make a point.
More importantly, sometimes images and pictures make a better point rather than the spoken or written word. The maxim rings true that a picture tells a thousand word. Hence, the importance of the AV Guy in schools, and to helping the kids learn. Not to mention that assemblies and the school play would be a total disaster if not for the AV Guy!
The same idea that pictures, images, and even audio recording are effective teaching tools to kids, they are also effective tools for any personal injury lawyer.
It’s one thing for the personal injury lawyer to recount the story of a terrible accident. It’s far more compelling to show the Judge and Jury images of the accident itself, the accident scene, along with shocking or disturbing photographs of the post collision aftermath, or the damage to the vehicle. It’s one thing to say that the car was damaged so bad that it was declared a write off. It’s another thing to say the exact same thing, while the image of a crumpled up car (resembling a crumpled up soda can) is present on a screen. It’s a powerful image that will seer into the minds of the Judge and Jury that will be on their minds when it’s time to make a decision about the case.
Personal injury lawyers need to be experts in using technology in the Courtroom. Getting the message across, and telling a compelling story which resonates with the Judge and Jury is critical to winning a case. The technological advancements for personal injury lawyers in the Courtroom are quite astounding when you really think about it.
When I first started practicing law; personal injury lawyers relied on poster board diagrams, much like you would find in a high school science fair. The personal injury lawyer would put the poster boards up on an easel; and sort through the board which they wanted to present or discuss. Lawyers for the insurance companies would get upset if the poster boards were left up on the easel when they weren’t being referred to or discussed because they said it prejudiced their defence because the Judge and Jury would be left starring at the boards. So, defence lawyers would ask that they boards be removed when they weren’t in use.
The large poster boards evolved to the Elmo Projectors. Instead of using large poster boards, personal injury lawyers could place a page on the Elmo machine which would project the image of the paper on a projector screen. It was fast, easy, didn’t require an easel, or the mass production of science fair poster boards. It also made setting up for trial that much lighter and less bulky. Everything could be packed up nicely into a brief case, or a set of bankers boxes.
Then came the screens, laptops and tablets. It was all very easy, so to say. There was no more paper to be placed onto an Elmo projector. Now, all of the images were in the cloud, waiting to be beamed onto a screen inside of the Courtroom. Personal Injury Lawyers could use software to instantaneously find a reference to a word in someone’s transcript, or some obscure medical reference in a doctor’s clinical notes and records. It was fast, and easy, so long as you understood how to properly use the software. Not to mention, the persuasive power of showing a Judge and Jury images, video, or exact references in records is a very powerful tool.
But the evolution of presenting a compelling case doesn’t stop there. The next horizon will be the use of Artificial Intelligence in the courtroom. How this will be used and implemented; along with how effective this will be has yet to be seen. This is particular important because AI is new, and right now, isn’t getting everything right. And in Court, it’s important to get everything right. Would a personal injury lawyer blindly trust AI technology to get their opening, closing, or questions on cross examination right?
The use of courtroom technology is very important to presenting a compelling case to a Judge and Jury. The same way that AV Guys are important to schools. Without both of them, the message does not get across effectively resulting in suboptimal results. It’s no wonder why there are separate AV Guys in schools who have their own offices. Without them, the lessons are just plain boring and when the lessons are boring, the kids don’t learn. When the personal injury lawyer presents a boring and uninspiring case, the results won’t follow.
