The Rule of Four deals with how you present evidence to a jury. There are basically four ways to present evidence to a jury and what one attorney has done is prioritized each way in terms of its sufficiency. According to Eric Block, a Florida injury lawyer whose practice concentrates on personal injury claims and trial work related to those claims, the Rule of Four is something that he incorporated into his practice many years ago – and it works. He explained:

• Testimony. The traditional way of presenting evidence to a jury is through testimony. A person gets on the stand. They’re sworn to tell the truth. They’re asked questions, they give answers and a jury will make a determination based on that testimony. Interestingly, we found that testimony is the least effective way to persuade a jury.
• Text. Better than testimony is text. That is, people are more likely to believe what they read 400,000 times more than what they hear. So, what we do is put the important themes of the case into a computer and put that up on a screen. We actually write them on a screen and put them on an easel so the jury can read them because a jury is going to believe what it reads more than what it hears.
• Pictures. We also have found that pictures are more persuasive than text. So, it’s very important to have photographs of as much of your case as possible to present to the jury.
• Video. Finally, video is more persuasive than pictures. So, the rule of four says that text is more persuasive than testimony, pictures are more persuasive than text and video is more persuasive than pictures. We want to have video for every portion of our case that we can. For those portions of our cases that we can’t use or don’t have video, then we want to use photos. For that portion of our case that we can’t use photos, we want to use text, and for what we can’t use text, we simply rely on testimony.

The power of video in a TV society

Block incorporates videos either through PowerPoint software or legal software called Sanction 2 that he puts into our computer – as well as a high-power projector into the courtroom with a ten-foot screen and uses that technology in the courtroom. Block says, “We are a TV society. Jurors are used to seeing things on TV and seeing them in front of them portrayed on a screen as opposed to just being told in an open classroom type situation. So, we bring in very high-powered projectors, use bright colors and the latest in technology to show the videos.”

The Big Picture

Attorney Block has done so well with video technology that he started his own company called “The Big Picture. He explained how the company began and how it operates:

I was one of the first lawyers to start using this technology in the courtroom ten or 12 years ago. While PowerPoint has been around for years, it wasn’t being utilized by the legal profession. I started using it in the courtroom and became rather proficient at being able to apply PowerPoint technology in the legal arena. We actually got so good at that we started our own company.

We’re now used by about 30 different lawyers around the State of Florida in terms of preparing their cases and presenting their cases for mediation and trial. We try to be on the cutting edge of technology because we take what we do very, very seriously. We think it’s an honor and a privilege representing people. We see good people every day who do nothing wrong and, by no fault of their own, are terribly injured for the rest of their lives.

If you’ve been injured due to the negligence of another, contact a Florida injury attorney to discuss your situation. The consultation is free, without obligation and strictly confidential.