overhead projector is greatly under- uti- lized by plaintiffs’ attorneys. With an overhead projector, one can make trans- parencies of medical records, illustrations, deposition passages, etc., and blow them up for the jury. The overhead projector is not expensive and is easy to use. Dennis F. O’Brien suggests that you find a local art student to do color draw- ings of the anatomy or injuries of your client. Dennis also has his treating doc- tors bring their own charts or models to the trial. The doctor can take the same office tools used to educate patients and conduct a short “show and tell” for the jury. The chart or model does not cost the plaintiff any money. The only draw- back I have ever encountered using this tip is that some doctors insist on taking their models home after they are excused from the witness stand. J. Mitchell Lambros goes even further with medical videos. Mitch points out that for surgeries, in particular, many of the doctors’ offices are now using stan- dardized instructional videos.
These
videos show the procedures that the doc- tor intends to perform. Not only do these videos educate the patient concerning the procedures, but they also cover the some- times substantial risks involved in the surgery. These videos are high quality and to the point. Most importantly, the vid- eos do not cost anything.
We have all used x-rays at trial. If x-
rays were taken of your client (and the x-ray shows something broken) make sure you bring the x-ray to the trial. Have your treating physician circle on the x-ray the site of the injury. Some attorneys feel that getting a positive made of the x-ray is more effective. The physicians are also able to circle the injury on the positive of the x- ray. I have used both. The x-ray positives have the advantage of not requiring you to have an x-ray view box at trial or in the jury room. In my view, having the x-ray view box and using original x-rays or MRIs at trial is more flexible and cheaper in the long run. One word of caution; not all court- houses or courtrooms are equipped with x-ray view boxes. Even if the courthouse has a view box or two in the building, you might show up on the day of trial and find that your view box is being used in another courtroom. You may also find that the courthouse view box has been misplaced or the bulb is blown, etc. This problem is easily solved. Buy a new or used x-ray view box for your office. Put the view box in the trunk of your car and take it with you to trial, just in case. Paul D. Bekman advocates bringing the actual medical devices and physicians tools to trial. If your client has been in- jured and had to use an external fixator or Hoffman device, do not be satisfied
with just a photograph of the device. Paul follows Melvin Belli’s example from the Katherine Jeffers case. Much of the medi- cal hardware today looks like it is straight out of a Star Wars Parts Depot. It looks hurtful and ugly, seems heavy and feels cold to the touch. This is not the kind of thing you want anywhere near your body. It is painful just to look at some of these devices. On the other hand, leave your clients’ pillowy soft collars at the office (these soft collars are squeezable, warm and covered with cloth - almost cuddly). Such items do not look or feel painful. Why give the defense lawyer the oppor- tunity to drop your client’s soft collar in the jurors’ lap and ask them to “squeeze the Charmin.” Any injury that has to be repaired with
plates, screws or wire demands that you produce for trial at least one x-ray show- ing these foreign objects in your client’s body. This will be a high impact piece of evidence. This hardware may actually show up better on the x-ray positives than the actual x-rays. If the screws or other hardware have been removed from your client prior to trial, bring in the screws and hardware to court. The trick here is to remind your client to request the sur- geon to retain the “client’s property” after surgery. You can bet your client was
(Continued on page 8)
Spring 2001
Trial Reporter
7
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