In a recent webinar with EDRM, Nextpoint‘s eLaw Evangelist Brett Burney teamed up with Solutions Architect Megan O’Leary and Opveon CEO April Ferguson to break down exactly how legal teams can leverage trial presentation programs & tools to create compelling visual presentations that actually win cases.
Why Visual Presentations Matter
The courtroom has evolved. Gone are the days when attorneys could rely solely on verbal arguments and stacks of paper documents to convince a jury. Today’s jurors live in a visual world. They’re accustomed to consuming information through screens, videos, and dynamic presentations. That’s why mastering visual presentation tools is essential. Modern trial presentation software has become as fundamental to case preparation as legal research itself.
April Ferguson cut straight to the heart of it: Jurors are visual learners who need to stay engaged in an era of constant digital stimulation. Everyone walks into the courtroom used to multitasking — phone in hand, TV on in the background. The more ways you can present information visually, the more they’ll retain.
“Jurors trust what they see, not just what they’ve been told. A cold transcript is never going to carry the same punch as seeing a witness hesitate or shift in their seat or deliver an answer with absolute confidence.” – April Ferguson
But it’s not just about keeping people awake. Visual presentations fundamentally change how evidence is received. When you can control what your audience sees and when they see it, you’re guiding their attention exactly where it needs to be.
Choosing the Right Tools for the Job
Not all trial presentation programs are created equal, and understanding when to use which tool can make or break your strategy.
Linear vs. Dynamic Presentations
Linear tools like PowerPoint or Keynote work great when you know exactly what you want to show and in what order. Think opening statements and closing arguments. You’ve rehearsed, you know your story, and you’re walking straight through it.
However, the courtroom isn’t always predictable. Witnesses can give unexpected answers. You need to pivot, jump to different exhibits, and zoom in on specific details without warning. That’s where dynamic trial presentation softwares like Nextpoint or OnCue become essential.
As Megan explained, these platforms let you type in an exhibit number and instantly bring it up on the screen. You can highlight, zoom, and create callouts on the fly.
The Hot Seat: Who’s Running Your Presentation?
Imagine this scenario: It’s the night before trial, and someone realizes nobody’s assigned to run the presentation. The task gets thrown to a first-year associate or paralegal with a “you’re a techie, you got this” and a prayer.
“If anything goes wrong, all eyes, including the judge, go straight to you.” – Megan O’Leary
April is blunt about this: You wouldn’t have a contract lawyer try a high-stakes commercial case, so why would you have someone who rarely uses trial presentation software run your technology during trial? If they’re relearning the platform every time, mistakes happen. And when mistakes happen, you look bad.
The solution would be to invest in training someone on your team to become a presentation pro, or to bring in an experienced hot seat operator who lives and breathes these platforms. For smaller matters (depositions, routine hearings), your team might be fine. But for big trials? It’s worthwhile to hire a professional.
The Power of Document Callouts
One of the most fundamental, and most effective, visual techniques is the document callout. Here’s how it works: You show the full document first, grounding your audience in the four corners of that page. Then you zoom in on the specific paragraph, sentence, or even single phrase that matters.
This technique is powerful because you’re literally controlling where people look. You’re not letting them read ahead or get distracted by other information on the page. Their eyes go exactly where you guide them.
In Nextpoint’s Theater View, creating these callouts is remarkably simple. Draw a rectangle around the section you want to emphasize, and it enlarges. Want to highlight it? Draw another box. Underline it? Just hold shift. You can do all of this in real-time, or prepare callouts ahead of time and trigger them with a single keystroke.
Video: The Must-Have Tool
If you take one thing from this discussion, let it be this: Video depositions are no longer optional.
April explains: Jurors trust what they see, not just what they’re told. A 15-second impeachment clip showing a witness pause, shift uncomfortably, or deliver an answer with absolute confidence lands infinitely harder than reading 12 lines from a 487-page transcript.
“Video isn’t just a tool. It’s how you make evidence feel alive and how you make it credible in the courtroom full of people who watch hours of video every single day.” – April Ferguson
Capturing high-quality video depositions has never been easier. Tools like Remote Legal allow you to record professional video depositions, and thanks to Nextpoint’s extensive partnerships, you can seamlessly import that video directly into the platform for thorough analysis.
Building Your Timeline
Every case needs a timeline. Even if it’s just for your own understanding as you wrap your head around the sequence of events, a visual timeline is invaluable to organizing your case.
Nextpoint’s chronology feature lets you create facts (events or claims with specific dates) and connect them to relevant people, documents, and issues. You can then generate a visual timeline that shows not just when things happen, but how long they lasted.
Duration matters. Seeing that an investigation spanned six months while a contract was only in effect for two weeks tells a story that a simple list of dates never could. You can color-code events, mark approximate dates, and filter to show only what’s relevant to specific issues or individuals.
April emphasized that building this timeline shouldn’t be an afterthought. Start crafting your storyline from day one. Early storytelling forces clarity. If your story is muddy, your evidence collection is probably incomplete. It helps guide discovery by showing exactly what details matter and what’s just noise.
The Strategy Behind the Tools
While the technical capabilities of trial presentation programs are impressive, the real value comes from understanding how to use them strategically.
For instance, sometimes you want to build a callout or annotation in real-time, letting the jury watch as you highlight key phrases. This can be extremely effective when walking an expert through their report. Other times, you want pre-annotated images ready to go, especially when you’re on a strict time limit or moving through a witness quickly.
You should ensure everyone on your team is speaking the same language. When you reference exhibits, use consistent terminology — trial exhibit numbers are easier to track than Bates numbers. And narrate what you’re doing for the court transcript: “We’re enlarging the first paragraph of the job description” creates a record that makes sense if the case goes to appeal.
Mixing Media for Maximum Impact
Sometimes an old-school foam board on an easel is exactly what you need, particularly for timelines or key demonstratives you’ll reference throughout the trial.
Mixed media helps keep jurors engaged. You can have your electronic presentation on screen showing documents and video slips, then point to a physical timeline: “Here’s where we are in the sequence. Here’s where you signed the contract.”
The presence of physical media can also help the speaker. If you’re someone who talks with your hands (and many effective trial lawyers are), having something tangible to gesture toward can make you more comfortable and confident.
From Nextpoint to the Courtroom
One of Nextpoint’s key strengths is that it serves as your central repository throughout the case, from early case assessment through trial. You’re collecting facts, identifying people, organizing documents, creating video clips, and building timelines all in one platform.
When it’s time for the big show, you can present directly from Nextpoint’s Theater View, which functions as a comprehensive trial presentation program that handles everything from document callouts to video clips. For many cases (depositions, hearings, even shorter trials), this is perfect. The tools are intuitive enough that team members can learn them in 10 minutes.
For major trials where you need maximum flexibility, Nextpoint Apex plans include an OnCue subscription, giving you access to additional presentation capabilities and a local install option (so you’re not relying on courthouse wifi). Nextpoint makes this seamless, so all your preparation work comes right along with you.
Watch the Full Webinar
Want to see these presentation techniques in action? The complete webinar recording includes live demonstrations of Nextpoint’s trial presentation programs, including Theater View, video deposition tools, timeline generation, and much more.
You’ll see exactly how to create compelling callouts, manage video clips, and build visual timelines that tell your story effectively. Watch the full session to get the hands-on insights your team needs to master visual presentations.
