Bad Hair Day, Messy Hotel Room DayNOTE: This series will cover what happened, how we've adjusted, where we are now, and where we're headed. We will also offer numerous tips, tricks, and best practices for hybrid and remote trials.When is the last time you joined a Zoom meeting, only to realize the total disaster you were displaying to everyone? Maybe you're having a bad hair day, messy background day, or even a sun-suddenly-broke-through-the-clouds-and-started-blazing-in-through-the-window-directly-behind-you-as-soon-as-you-turned-on-your-webcam-day. Hey, things happen. But -- many of these little disasters are actually preventable.You might already know there are settings you can use to allow or prevent your webcam

 NOTE: This series will cover what happened, how we've adjusted, where we are now, and where we're headed. We will also offer numerous tips, tricks, and best practices for hybrid and remote trials.Cameras are the only new major component needed to enable hybrid trials, which have quickly become the most common format. With skyrocketing travel costs, it makes economic sense to have a witness appear remotely from another part of the country -- or even from another country. Even a daily commute can be avoided by many members of a trial team, allowing those back at the war room to watch

 Order "The Online Courtroom"NOTE: This series will cover what happened, how we've adjusted, where we are now, and where we're headed. We will also offer numerous tips, tricks, and best practices for hybrid and remote trials. Looking back at our trial calendar, I added a note on March 9, 2020: COVID-19 BUSINESS STOP. I was at home in Southern California's South Bay (I also have a home office in the East Bay Area in Northern California), and the next important note I see is on March 27, 2020: BEACHES AND PIER CLOSED. Now, it's certainly a big deal when all the

Now that the courts are beginning to get back to business, will we continue to have remote witnesses and juries? That's a great question, and we'd have a completely different answer had it not been for COVID-19. What we've just experienced is one of the fastest implementations of technology by the legal professions ever.Technology, when used properly, can make you more effective and efficient in trial. It used to be a major strategic consideration whether to use TrialDirector and risk appearing as though you were spending too much money, or had very deep pockets as a defendant. Now, there is

Trials. Exhibits. In Person. Remote. Hybrid.We have many options, now that we're slowly climbing our way out of a global pandemic. Pre-COVID, we had only a few common options. During the first part of COVID, we literally had none. Rather quickly, the lights began to turn on again, even if most of those were monitors glowing, as opposed to courtroom lights. Now most of us have become proficient in online trials, arbitrations and depos. It took a pandemic to implement technology that has already been available for years. While there are both benefits and drawbacks to remote technology, it is here

During Voir Dire, jurors will be watching you like a hawk. photo © Ted BrooksIf you do jury trials, you're already familiar with the voir dire process and know how important it can be to your case. You can have a jury consultant assist with this process, or you might prefer to handle it on your own, but in either scenario it is the attorney who will be speaking with the jurors. While you might be chomping at the bit to get this trial started, the fact is that it has already begun. Don't ever take voir dire lightly - it is

TrialDirector 360Although it hasn't yet been officially released yet, here are a few initial thoughts on the new TrialDirector 360, some of which are from my LinkedIn post. If you'd like to follow along, feel free to connect and follow my profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ted-brooks-778190/ You will need to set up an Ipro 360 account, which will manage your Ipro software and will eventually serve as another method of creating and working with your cases. Parts of this, along with some features in TD360 are still being finalized. This initial review is on a Beta website, and the locally installed version is 1.0.0.0.Once you're

Y2K with Brobeck (scary times) Beginning with my time in-house at Brobeck (1998-2002), I have enjoyed writing about Legal Technology for many publications. Many reprints were available on earlier versions of the Litigation-Tech website. After some updates and upgrades over the years, these had become "orphaned," meaning they were still available online, but could only be found by running a specific web search. As a Holiday project, I decided to set them up in an archive, so they would be available once again. Although these articles are somewhat "dated," many of them are still surprisingly relevant. The archive is intended

PowerPoint Tips for the Courtroom(Originally published on ABA Law Technology Today)Since everyone has a different level of comfort and experience with something used as infrequently as PowerPoint, the objective for this list is to approach the topic from several different perspectives, in hopes that each reader might find at least two or three helpful tips. We’ll begin with some very basic design and layout ideas, and move on to some more technical and advanced features. With about 20 years’ experience in trial presentation, these are a few things I’ve seen used/misused most often.1. Slide LayoutIf you’re using PowerPoint slides, you