In the Three Stooges case, which was heard before the new network was set up, Lugosi and his legal team had thousands of pages of documents scanned into a desktop computer. Not only could he pull up documents on the desktop computer; he also could search a database on his laptop for names or concepts that needed further study. For example, when he wanted to find every reference to a certain person, Lugosi could generate a list from the database of every paper in which that person's name appeared and then call up each document on the desktop computer. More precise searches would highlight only those documents in which the person was mentioned in relation to something else. The alternative to a computerized database is hunting by hand through files and reading the documents to find the appropriate material -- a costly, time-consuming, and error-prone task.
The firm also uses software called CaseView for Windows, from Discovery Products, in Mount Prospect, Ill., that provides instantaneous access to depositions and testimony. In a practice followed for decades, court reporters record testimony by typing symbols onto special tape, which is used later to produce printouts that are distributed to all parties. With CaseView, the court reporter's output appears on the user's laptop computer as the words are typed. Lugosi makes notations right on the screen, marks important passages for later study, and searches earlier testimony for possible inconsistencies -- all while a deposition is going on. "At the lunch break you have a transcript," he says. "You can figure out questions for the next session."
Perhaps most impressive is the system the firm uses to present evidence. Hanna and Morton currently represents a Fortune 500 corporation whose degreasing equipment leaked 6,000 gallons of solvent, polluting groundwater beneath the plant. The company contends that the leak was caused by a defect in the design of the equipment and is suing the manufacturer. In a typical case like this, lawyers use a variety of graphics drawn on cardboard and displayed on an easel to show jurors how something may have happened. But operations inside the degreasing equipment were so complicated that traditional techniques could not have conveyed a clear picture. So Hanna and Morton persuaded its client to pay upward of $100,000 to DecisionQuest, in Torrence, Calif., to help trace the solvents through the defective piece of equipment and in the groundwater, and to produce an animated simulation of the progression.
The computer simulation of a degreasing operation won't challenge Pocahontas for an Academy Award, but it serves its purpose just as well. The court saw a cross-section of the plant, drawn to scale, and simulations of liquids moving through pipes and tanks -- all of which showed what Renwick argued was the fateful design flaw that had caused the solvent spill. "It would be hard to prove the point without the animation," he says. "Animation makes the process so easy to see."
In fact, every presentation system that Hanna and Morton uses in the courtroom makes things easy for the judge and the jury -- and makes an impression as well. Traditionally, in addition to mounting evidence on an easel, documents such as letters and reports are passed around from one member of the jury to another. "When you pass documents to 12 people plus alternate jurors, it takes forever," says Lugosi. "And juries don't like it when lawyers fumble around for things."
In the Three Stooges trial, Lugosi and the Benjamin brothers used a presentation system developed by Trial Presentation Technologies, in Culver City, Calif., which supplied a similar system for use in the O. J. Simpson murder trial. The judge, the jury, and counsel all were given monitors. A single keystroke by a computer operator brought to the screen charts, diagrams, time lines, and other documents. Lugosi and his team manipulated the documents to highlight or enlarge key passages. "I think that the technology gave us an edge," he says. "It enabled us to present the facts in a convincing way."
That edge came at a high price: more than $150,000 for four weeks in the courtroom. At that price, of course, using the equipment in civil suits is appropriate only when a large damage award hangs in the balance.
The Benjamins and Lugosi worked every angle to get all the benefits they could from the computer presentation system. Besides presenting evidence, Lugosi put together some of the Stooges' funniest clips and got the judge's permission to show them periodically to the jury. When jurors began yawning -- having had their fill of bookkeeping entries, accounting charts, and licensing agreements -- pies would start to fly, noggins would get cracked, and cries of "Knucklehead" would fill the air. For a brief moment, at least, bedlam reigned.
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Stephen D. Solomon (solomon@is2.nyu.edu) is an associate professor of journalism and mass communications at New York University.
