Nextpoint began more than a decade ago as a litigation services company supporting a handful of loyal customers. Since that time, we’ve worked with hundreds of law firms and Fortune 100 companies in all kinds of high-stakes litigation. We know that preparing for trial is an unpredictable and difficult proposition for even the most experienced litigation teams, as seen in Google’s ongoing patent infringement suit with Oracle.
Through our years of trial work, Nextpoint’s professional services team has developed a complete but flexible model to assist with litigation of all different types. We’re sharing our program, which we call the Nextpoint Nine, to help anyone manage even the most complex matters. The Nextpoint Nine is the secret sauce that has allowed us to succeed, but we’re letting it out for anyone to adopt in the hopes that all of our customers can make the most effective use of our technology and services.
If you’re one of our trial services customers, or are using our Trial Cloud solution to manage your evidence on your own, follow these steps to move smoothly from production through trial.
1. Identification We believe strongly in identifying your trial data and exhibits early. This information is going to be a smaller subset of the data reviewed during discovery, plus any depositions, declarations, and any other data likely to be used as evidence. Trial Cloud customers who also use Discovery Cloud can take advantage of our fully integrated platform to easily move data from review to our trial platform.
If your team plans to take advantage of Nextpoint’s professional creative services, we will also discuss case themes and concepts during our initial identification meeting. Themes identified in this stage are developed by our creative team into a set of “Initial Concept” demonstratives, illustrations and animation for use during opening or closing statements or during witness examinations.
2. Collection Once you have identified the data and exhibits planned in step one, collect and catalog all the information and data along with information for the individuals associated with the information.
Often, we work directly with the paralegals and support staff within a firm to take data and begin moving the collected information to our Trial Cloud service platform.
3. Readiness Review Review your data and plan for best database construction possible.
This means collecting witness materials and all of their associated documents, as well as ensuring that the information and data collected meets the expectations you have identified in the identification stage.
We like to meet with our clients at this stage to review the current state of the database, close up any loose ends and review the preliminary deck of initial concept slides.
4. Training & Database Introduction We believe it is important to train all users who will be accessing the data and information collected. Nextpoint provides free tutorials for all Trial Cloud users and personal support from our in-house staff when you need it.
5. Preflight This is the last phase before trial and the last chance to check that your preparations are successful. The database of all available evidence is finished and your video, slides, and animations are complete. Your team should finalize the witness list order and prepare the actual trial presentations.
This is the stage where we believe teams need to whittle down their arguments and make sure you have the most impactful presentations possible. Too often, legal teams fall in love with text-heavy, wordy presentation materials. Strive to make the most direct, succinct, and effective visual arguments possible.
6. Launch Your work finally comes to fruition. Opening statements are ready and everything you have prepared is ready to roll out in support of your arguments.
7. Support Nextpoint support is available at every level of service as customers work with their data and move through trial. We check in regularly to ensure people understand the technology and creative tools we have provided, and that they have the skills to maximize benefits. We also provide large scale, on-site support for complex or large-scale litigation.
8. Wrap Up After closing arguments, Nextpoint litigation support teams check in with our clients to wrap up the case and address any outstanding items. Normally we will construct a plan for the data gathered and produced during the engagement, conduct final invoicing and discuss related or upcoming matters.
9. Evaluation We ask that our services clients evaluate many facets of the Nextpoint services experience after each engagement. We like to know how the technology is working, how affective your support level was, and who on our team performed well.
We recommend that you internalize this evaluation period as well, though it can be tempting to shut down after the stress of trial. Take a short time to review what went well and where the process was less than optimal in order to prepare your team for success at the next trial.
Whether you use our Trial Cloud platform to manage litigation or some other solution, this straightforward roadmap will take you successfully through the entire litigation process. We know that our customers have all kinds of different matters, and we know that the Nextpoint Nine is flexible enough to work for many different engagement levels and trial sizes.
