If you haven’t seen RocketCLE, they offer virtual CLE seminars viewable at any time for extremely reasonable prices. At $9.99, my iPad for Lawyers seminar is a bargain and if I say so myself, quite good. Should you be on the fence about purchasing the seminar, email me and I will tell you all the reasons you should purchase it.

Register here and I look forward to seeing you there!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

After searching around the Internet, I have found relatively few reviews of Exhibitview. My guess is that most people doing reviews of trial presentation software are trial consultants and a program like Exhibitview which seeks to make presenting exhibits at trial as easy as possible is in direct conflict with their business models. Since TechnoEsq Presentations, while being trial consultants, seeks to make technology in the courtroom affordable, we have no such conflict of interests. So I have decided to write an in-depth review of Exhibitview which must begin with certain basic questions: What makes a trial presentation software package good? What should a litigating attorney look for in deciding on one?

GOALS
When looking at any trial presentation software you first have to determine what your goal is with the program. Do you want to present slides one after another or do you want to be able to call up a document on the fly via Bates Stamp or other naming convention? Since the answer to this question determines the software used you must have a clear understanding of what end tasks you want accomplished prior to beginning.

Linear Presentations
Linear presentations are the most common and well-known type of presentations. PowerPoint and Keynote are the most well-known types of linear presentations. Linear refers to the order in which documents or slides are presented on the screen. With these presentations, for the most part, slides are created which flow into one another with the ability to jump between slides but all annotations must be made in advance (with some exceptions). This type of presentation is perfect for opening statements, hearings or, depending on the attorney’s style, closing arguments.

Non-Linear Presentations

When attorneys want a trial presentation program which can call up any document at will they need a non-linear presentation. A non-linear presentation is one which calls up exhibits or videos by either a pre-determined naming convention for each exhibit or by Bates Stamp numbering. This flexibility makes non-linear presentations perfect for cross-examinations, direct examinations and for some attorneys closing arguments. Additionally, these programs allow for annotations “on-the-fly”, allowing the operator of the computer to highlight areas, draw annotations and zoom in on sections of an exhibit at will. Samples of these types of programs are Sanction, Verdical, Trial Director and now ExhibitView.

EXHIBITVIEW

I have found the vast majority of lawyers want an application to highlight areas on an exhibit, draw lines and zoom in on certain areas (a ‘callout’) show clips from videos and present pages from depositions. Exhibitview seeks to outperform their competition with the simplicity which they accomplish these tasks. Programs such as Sanction and Verdical often leave attorneys scratching their heads with the complications in moving a case, importing videos and most times simply finding the tool the lawyer wants to use at any given time. This leads to frustration by the attorney and either a paralegal being sent for the expensive training these companies offer or hands thrown up in despair and going to the fall-back of printing exhibits on foam boards. The problem? Most juries expect technology in the courtroom given their exposure to CSI-type courtrooms on television and if sending the paralegal for training was the option, what happens when that staff member leaves the firm, taking all of their knowledge of the program with them?

Enter Exhibitview. Marketed as learnable in 30 minutes without individualized training, Exhibitview enters the market which has been dominated by the same companies for over a decade. Yet the fact that their program has not been around for over ten years turns out to be beneficial. The interface lacks the clutter and confusion as a result of years of additions and half-updates which plagues the other trial presentations we have been using. What Exhibitview does, play deposition clips, annotate exhibits, callout and play synchronized video it does well. The only complaint I’ve heard from attorneys is the lack of all of the bells and whistles the other programs offer- yet those same litigators are mysteriously silent when I asked them how often they actually USE those features.

Here is how it works:

Presenting Exhibits:
Much like every other app in this category, ExhibitView is first and foremost created to present exhibits. Exhibits are sorted into categories on the right side of the presenter’s screen. As you can see below, these categories range from media (videos), documents, images, and even webpages. You can simply scroll through the listing of exhibits or use the find feature, which has an auto-fill feature, to locate exhibits. To display the exhibit you either drag it to the hot zone in the middle of the presenter’s screen or if using the search feature hit enter twice.

The drop-zone is that area which will be displayed to the jury on the projector when it is on. You will notice that Exhibitview has the feature to turn the projector off while enabling the user to call up documents, annotate or zoom in on them, and then seamlessly turn the projector back on for viewing of the exhibit. This is accomplished either by dragging and dropping into the drop-zone. The drop-zone is divided into sections. When an exhibit is dragged into it, the entire drop-zone will light up, meaning the exhibit will be displayed in the center of the display. If the exhibit is dragged to either the right or left side of the drop-zone, only that half of the drop-zone becomes highlighted, indicating which half of the screen the exhibit will be displayed on. Using this, two images can quickly be compared side by side without clicking on any buttons or setup icons. The sizes of the left and right side can be changed via the icons directly above thedrop-zone, allowing for 2/3 and 1/3 splits between left and right or top and bottom. This drag and drop applies to all exhibits including: video, slides, images, pdf’s or anything else brought into the drop-zone.

Anything brought into the drop-zone is displayed on the screen unless the projector is turned off.  One difference between Exhibitview and other trial presentation programs is that the cursor is never brought “out” onto the projector to annotate or perform anything in the program.  All highlighting or zooming in to certain areas of an exhibit is done within the drop-one with the effects not being seen until the annotations are complete.  Additionally, ExhibitView has an undo and redo feature for annotations in the toolbar which makes it easy to create annotations and quickly remove and replace them with the click of a button.

Depositions

ExhibitView isn’t made to just present documents and images however. Synchronized depositions, where the text of a deposition is displayed as the video of the deposition plays is a staple of any good trial presentation software and is also included within ExhibitView. What is superior about ExhibitView’s presentation of synchronized text and video is the manner in which it is displayed. Other trial presentation programs display the sync’d text in a box below the video, with a yellow bar highlighting the current line but also allowing the jury to “read ahead” by showing the coming lines of transcript. Exhibitview presents sync’d depositions the way jury’s are used to seeing it, as a closed-caption. This makes it much easier for the jury to watch the deponent and read the text at the same time and also keeps them from reading ahead, potentially taking away the shock factor. Below is an example of how synchronized text is displayed:

As you can see from the example below, the process of selecting a portion of a deposition for playback is incredibly simple and straightforward. I have always been amazed at how complicated other programs can make such an often used task. In ExhibitView it is as easy as highlighting the text of the deposition you want played and dragging it to the presentation window. Exhibitview then begins playing the video/text of that clip instantly.

This is a much cleaner and more elegant solution than Verdical or Sanction’s method of viewing sync’d depositions. In addition to this, Exhibitview does not require the importing of depositions if you want to just play certain portions or the entire depo. It allows you to insert a DVD of a depo and create bookmarks within the depo for viewing later. When you want to play the deposition or bookmarks, you can just put that DVD into the computer and either play the deposition in full or jump straight to your bookmarks. Of course, you can import a digital version of your depo in most standard video formats and create bookmarks or play the deposition from there, but in today’s age of smaller and smaller notebooks, hard drive space can become a problem and so having the option of playing a deposition or bookmarks directly from the DVD can help alleviate hard drive storage issues.

Much like other presentation solutions, Exhibitview will allow you to create SlideMaker slides, basically like PowerPoint slides, from within the program or import pre-created PowerPoint slideshows. One caveat is that it does not support moving text or videos from imported PowerPoint slides. This isn’t that much of a problem however since you can play a video and display a slide side-by-side in ExhibitView’s presenter screen. One plus side to using ExhibitView’s SlideMaker is that the slides are croppable and resizable, even allowing the user to change to different slides.

Perhaps the most welcome feature of Exhibitview is the automatic detection of projectors. As long as the second monitor or projector is set up as an extended monitor, ExhibitView’s projector wizard will find and setup display to your projector. I cannot tell you how welcome this feature is given the problems often associated with other solutions trying to connect to projectors. Everything an application like this does automatically is one less thing an attorney has to worry about while in trial.

For the money, at $794 including software support, Exhibitview beats all known competition hands down as the best PC trial presentation solution available. The outstanding easy to use interface and features make Exhibitview a no-brainer for those litigating lawyers tired of fighting with their presentation programs in trial or constantly wasting money training and re-training employees in how to use their program of choice. Lastly, Exhibitview works perfectly fine on a Mac running virtualized Windows.

I have worked out a special offer on Exhibitview for TechnoEsq readers. If you enter the coupon code “technoesq” at checkout you receive 20% off the retail price of the software and support bundle. That’s a savings of almost $160! Trust me, it’s money well spent.

Sliced Images

What sets BodyViz apart is that this process is as simple as inserting your client’s CD with the MRI or CT study and the application dynamically creating a 3D model of the data on the fly.  The user is then able to fly through and around the 3D model using a familiar interface with an XBox controller connected via Microsoft’s wireless PC adapter for the laptop.  This allows virtually anyone familiar with any of the modern shoot ‘em up XBox 360 games to immediately pick up the controller and begin manipulating the 3D model of their client’s MRI/CT Scan. This allows for amazing videos to be created with the software on the fly in a video deposition or pre-created for use in trial.

Soft Tissues Revealed

However BodyViz is not only creating a 3D model of the data from the CD inserted. Using the data provided with the scan, BodyViz is able to peel away layers from the model, such as muscle and skin. Thus enabling the viewer to present an organ, such as the heart, with the surrounding soft tissues visible at first for identification of the area by a lay person and then remove the extraneous soft tissues to reveal the target area. From there, BodyViz allows the user to rotate around a fixed point, zoom in and out and place virtual trocars. This is particularly useful when trying to visualize surgeries involving improper placement of medical tools when a 2D film does not adequately present the 3-dimensional aspects of a procedure.

Also available is the ability to take the 3D model and begin slicing pieces of the  scan away to reveal the internal structures of areas.This is quite helpful when placing virtual trocars to visualize the external and internal images of the area. Coupling this feature with the removal of soft tissues allows for an attorney to present the client’s MRI/CT Scan study in a way that allows the viewer, jury or otherwise, to immediately understand what is being displayed and allows for the complex data stored in the study to truly “come to life”.

Soft Tissues Removed

Besides offering an interactive experience, BodyViz also offers the ability to create surgical “paths” which are used to have the viewer fly through a preset path. Obviously, this technology is a boon for medical schools and surgeons preparing for procedures, but BodyViz’s abilities are as equally beneficial to attorneys seeking to create a more interactive and visual display of their client’s injuries.  The true power of BodyViz was shown to me when I was presented with a frontal view of a patient’s CT SCan which showed what appeared to be a normal pelvis. Once I was given the controller and allowed to rotate around the skeletal system of the patient I was shocked to see a massive fracture of the pelvis which, due to the 2D view normally seen, was simply not seen or properly appreciated by untrained eyes.

Due to the obvious graphics processing requirements of BodyViz, this is not the kind of software you can run on just any computer. BodyViz recommends 1GB of video RAM along with some other system requirements.  Due to this, BodyViz offers a complete package which includes a laptop, software installed and an upgrade plan.  With prices below $10,000.00, BodyViz certainly brings technology which was previously relegated to physician schools within the budget of most law firms.

TechnoEsq Presentations is currently in the process of purchasing the equipment and so have first-hand experience with the staff of BodyViz.  All of our questions concerning the software and hardware were answered promptly and the process of purchasing the hardware and installing BodyViz is a seamless one with BodyViz purchasing the hardware and customizing it prior to shipping out. We are really excited to be using BodyViz as it will allow us to create stunning 3-dimensional models of attorney’s client’s MRI and CT studies, placing them into our trial and mediation presentations at an affordable cost.

Technology has come to jury selection with a new app for the iPad called iJuror. Created by software developer Scott Falbo with help from his wife, Renee, a lawyer at Freid and Klawon in Buffalo, N.Y., iJuror is intended to help lawyers pick a jury. “I had heard my wife and some of her friends talk…

Read the full article here.

By Front9Technologies, iJuror is a graphical app which first allows the attorney to select the layout of the jury pool by specifying the number of potential jurors in columns and rows. Once done, a jury pool is shown which allows the lawyer to select a potential juror and enter standard data such as Name, employer, hometown and notes. However, where iJuror really shines is in quickly entering other data. At the top of the screen is an area which makes a dropdown scroll-wheel style menu allowing for quick input of age, sex, race, marital status, children, education, whether police are in the family, prior arrests, whether the potential juror was a potential victim and past jury experience.

With a few flicks of the finger, an attorney can record a great amount of information for a civil or criminal trial and make better informed decisions in jury selection. Options are also available to decide whether to utilize strikes on each juror, what opposing counsel chose and those for cause. (Peremptory Us, Dismiss for Cause, Peremptory Them).

As the app was developed with the help of attorneys, it is filled with other useful features, including:

• Simply tap the seats to add juror information
• Quicker than pen & paper
• Share with your colleagues
• Store all of your trials in one location
• Look for patterns over time
• Email the jury information to any email address
• Easily print the email for access anywhere
• Configurable for seating arrangements of up to 60 jurors
• Add notes as the trial goes along
• Name view provides quick access to name and notes right at your finger tips
• Drag and drop to choose jurors
• Drag and drop to choose alternates
• Drag and drop to dismiss jurors

At $9.99 (limited time sale) this app is certainly a bargain. As a trial lawyer, I can tell you how difficult it is to attempt to write down so much information, not to mention how distracting it is while attempting voir dire on your own. Given the small size of the iPad and ease of entering complex data, iJuror allows an attorney to use the iPad on a lectern simply using their finger to enter juror data while maintaining a conversational atmosphere while talking with the jury pool. Our recommendation is to buy it here.

We will give a review of FastCase in a few days on our branch-off site, MacEsq.com, in the next few days but U.S. Code doesn’t really need that much explanation as it simply provides the U.S. Code in its entirety. It provides full offline access to the entire U.S. Code so you can search all federal statutes by keyword or citation even when offline. You can even bookmark cites for future reference which is handy given the shear breadth of the information available in this app. This isn’t the most up to date version of the U.S. Code, but is still well worth the price…FREE.

This episode… Apple iPad Special – Part 2

Hosted by: Victor Medina, Finis Price, and Ben Stevens. We discuss the iPad right after orders were allowed.

Comments?  Send them to milochat@miloweekly.com

Subscribe to this podcast using iTunes! 

Embedded player here:

Download the podcast directly by right-clicking and saving this link

This episode… Apple iPad Special – Part 1

Hosted by: Victor Medina, Finis Price, Adam Greivell and Ben Stevens. We discuss the iPad right after its announcement.

Comments?  Send them to milochat@miloweekly.com

Subscribe to this podcast using iTunes! 

Embedded player here:

Download the podcast directly by right-clicking and saving this link

How can reQall and Evernote save your life? By making your life and your practice more efficient. One of the biggest problems attorneys face is organization and the capture of information. Just like every other person in this digital age, we are constantly bombarded with information. However, we are also constantly attempting to track this information and not lose those brilliant ideas we come up with while in the car driving to a deposition or that amazing article or article we read on the Internet. reQall and Evernote are both applications which seek to step in and capture the information you have in your head or in front of you and archive that information into a searchable digital format. reQall organizes, analyzes and gives you the reminders of the information and Evernote helps you capture it. To better understand how these applications interconnect it is necessary to explain each app individually.

Evernote

Evernote is an application for your iPhone, computer (Mac or PC), Blackberry and web browser. Once you have downloaded the application to your computer and/or phone you are set to begin capturing information. This is accomplished on your computer through either your web browser, which should now have an Evernote icon in the dock, or by opening the Evernote application directly.

Evernote allows you to capture information from any source on your computer. You can highlight important text, grab a whole web page or just type in text directly into a note in Evernote. Once you’ve gotten the data in Evernote, you can tag and mark the data for easy retrieval and archiving. What makes Evernote so great however is that all of this data is synchronized with their web servers. So you can access this information anywhere you have net access or even from the Evernote program on your phone. This is particularly useful for archiving legal research as the tagging features allows you to quickly find data by topic.

Another great feature of Evernote is the ability to perform OCR on photographs. For example, if you take a photo of a whiteboard at the end of a meeting using Evernote, the photo is uploaded to their servers and the text written in the picture is converted to searchable text and added to your Evernote archive. Then you can search for anything written on the whiteboard and the photo, along with the text highlighted within the photo, will appear in your search results. I can’t tell you how many times I have used this to find what was decided in a meeting and none of it would have been possible had I not taken a quick snapshot of the whiteboard afterwards with Evernote.

reQall

What sets reQall apart from other memory apps, other than the speech recognition, is the ability to help ‘jog’ your memory. For example, reQall continuously monitors your location, the time and date and if you are at a location you set for a particular meeting or are approaching the time and date of a reminder you set, reQall will prompt you to make sure you don’t forget that meeting. It is basically a virtual assistant with you constantly to help remind you of the important things you’ve placed into reQall.

reQall and Evernote Together

Together, reQall and Evernote create the ultimate in data collection and organization/reminding. By linking your reQall account to your Evernote account, reQall will automatically collect the data you have in your Evernote account and associate this with your calendar, to-do list and reminders.

So when you are at your project meeting, use Evernote for iPhone to take a picture of the whiteboard, Evernote will recognize what you wrote (e.g., project name, agreed-upon tasks, etc.) and reQall will then link the whiteboard picture in your Evernote account to future project meetings on your Google calendar by looking for matching keywords. Or when you’re planning your next business trip, add reminders in reQall for your travel dates and the things you want to see. Then, use Evernote to research your trip, capturing web pages and pictures about historic sites, walking tours and restaurants or more importantly, souvenirs for your wife. When you’re on the trip, reQall will automatically remind you of your plans and associate them with the items you researched in Evernote. For example, you may have an item in reQall that is “Visit vineyards in Napa Valley.” From there, one tap in reQall and you can see all of your Evernotes related to Napa Valley vineyards and all of those souvenirs you had better purchase while on this “business trip”. Or even more helpful to attorneys, perform research for the Dillon Mediation you have scheduled next week and place it into Evernote with the title or tag it “Dillon Mediation”. If you’ve placed the Dillon Mediation in your calendar, on the day of the Dillon Mediation, reQall for iPhone’s Here and Now screen will automatically show the research you performed while you are in your mediation.

The amount of time and saved information the combination of reQall and Evernote can save is truly astonishing. It is equivalent to having a personal assistant with you 24 hours a day, remembering information, linking that information and recalling it when you need it, whispering it into your ear as you need it. Well, only reQall and Evernote are a lot cheaper.