Federal Judges, Technology

Today's Tech: A Federal Judge On Trial Presentation Technology In His Courtroom

Why is this Sixth Circuit judge so excited about the use of trial presentation technology in his courtroom?

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One of the primary reasons I write this column is to encourage lawyers to use technology. Because in my experience, lawyers as a whole have been somewhat suspicious of jumping onto the technology bandwagon — especially lawyers who have been practicing law quite well for decades without all of this technology hullabaloo, thank you very much.

My hope is that by showcasing how some lawyers are using technology to their benefit, I will spur my technology-averse colleagues to consider doing the same. I’ve found that one of the best ways to lead by example is to feature a judge who has forward-thinking views about the intersection of law and technology. So I was incredibly excited when Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge David McKeague agreed to share his experiences with — and enthusiasm for — trial presentation technology.

Judge McKeague explained to me that he first learned about trial presentation technology when he was a judge for the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan. “The educational arm of the Federal Court System is called the Federal Judicial Center. One of their goals is to educate judges about new technology at the annual  national conference,” he explains. “In the late 1990s they started to expose us to trial presentation technology. They explained the benefits of encouraging lawyers to present cases using this technology. Not only was it more interesting for the jurors, it was more efficient for both the lawyers and the courts.”

According to Judge McKeague, he was quickly sold on the merits and his courtroom was the first one in his district to be wired for trial presentation software: “The Administrative Office of the Federal Courts incentivized adoption by making money available to courts willing to test drive the technology. I proposed to my fellow judges that we apply for the funds and use my courtroom as the pilot court where the technology would be installed.”

Before moving forward, Judge McKeague and his staff carefully researched their options, with a focus on avoiding the glitches encountered by the other courts that had already installed trial presentation technology: “The first thing we had to do was decide which hardware and software we wanted to provide to the lawyers. We traveled around the country and looked at what others were doing, got their opinions, and asked what they would have done differently.”

Installing the technology in his courtroom was just the first step. The next, more challenging one was to convince lawyers that learning how to use trial presentation technology would be worth their while. “Once we had wired my courtroom, we had to figure out how to convince the lawyers to use it and then provide them with training,” he says. “That’s where my then-case manager, Bonnie Kipp, and the other case managers came in. We sent them to get training on Trial Director and Sanctions software and then developed a training program for all of the local lawyers we could get to listen. Then we made the case managers available to them on an as-needed basis to help the make it work.”

It went better than expected, and lawyers who appeared in his courtroom quickly acclimated to the new software: “I was most surprised about how easy it was to convince lawyers that this was a good idea. Of course, the mere fact that I was enthusiastic about it certainly helped with adoption rates. But it was more than that; the lawyers quickly realized that when you use the software to its full capacity you can do lots of things when presenting the evidence that makes it much more interesting and persuasive to the jury. Many of them became proponents of the software and convinced their colleagues to use it, too”

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According to Judge McKeague, he had no regrets after requiring the use of trial presentation technology in his courtroom. “It was the right thing to do because you ended up with a jury that was much more comfortable in the courtroom. It’s an unfamiliar and unnatural environment for them and we ask them to sit passively and listen to people talk, which isn’t how they normally communicate. When trial presentation software is used, you have a jury that is more attentive and follows the evidence much more closely as it’s being received than they would if pieces of paper were being passed around. It’s also more efficient and a case can be presented in half the time. It’s a win-win because if the trial time is cut down by half, the chances of the jury staying engaged is that much greater.”

According to Judge McKeague, even with all its benefits, trial presentation technology doesn’t necessarily give lawyers an edge when it comes to winning cases. “It depends on how good a lawyer’s case is to start with. You can certainly make a good case better. But can you take a bad case and win that which you would otherwise have lost?” he asks. “I’m not sure about that one way or the other. But I do know that all the lawyers who tried it told us afterwards that they would never try a case the old school way again.”

So that’s how one judge used technology in his courtroom. As always, if you or an attorney you know is using technology in a creative or unusual way in your law firm, drop me an email at niki.black@mycase.com. I’m always looking for new attorneys — or judges — to feature in this column.

Nicole Black is a Rochester, New York attorney and the Legal Technology Evangelist at MyCase, web-based law practice management software. She’s been blogging since 2005, has written a weekly column for the Daily Record since 2007, is the author of Cloud Computing for Lawyers, co-authors Social Media for Lawyers: the Next Frontier, and co-authors Criminal Law in New York. She’s easily distracted by the potential of bright and shiny tech gadgets, along with good food and wine. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikiblack and she can be reached atniki.black@mycase.com.

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