Seeing Is Believing: How Demonstratives Helped Deliver a $21+ Million Verdict
Complex cases are difficult enough to litigate. Explaining them clearly to a jury is often the bigger challenge.
That was especially true in a wrongful death case arising from a fatal shooting in the parking lot of a national chain hardware store located in Portland, OR. Handled by trial attorney Tom D’Amore, the case involved claims against the property management and security companies responsible for the premises. Conflicting witness testimony, surveillance footage, forensic evidence, and questions surrounding the use of force created a complicated factual landscape for the jury to navigate.
A man was granted permission by the store to collect wooden pallets for recycling. He would come around periodically and load them onto his truck for removal. The property management company had an issue with this and banned him from the property. The man came onto the property another time, at which point the security guard on duty confronted him, telling him he had to leave. When the man didn’t leave immediately, the security guard escalated the situation by emptying a can of mace into the man’s vehicle with both he and his wife inside. The wife exited the vehicle in distress, while the man, likely unable to see well, attempted to pull his vehicle out of the parking space. Rather than move out of the way, the security guard interpreted it as a threat to his life and shot the man through the windshield multiple times.
The property management company blamed the security company and the security guard, who was not allowed to legally carry a gun as part of his job. The security company claimed the guard passed all background checks and reasonably feared for his safety. Tom D’Amore and his team argued that they were both to blame. The security company did not provide adequate training and the guard went way too far in his response to the situation; while the property management company laid the groundwork with an aggressive “zero tolerance” policy for what they deemed unallowable activity in the parking lot.
Cases like this illustrate an important reality inside the courtroom. Jurors are often asked to process enormous amounts of information in a short period of time. Timelines, movement, positioning, expert testimony, and video evidence can quickly become overwhelming when presented through words alone. Jurors are not forensic experts or investigators. They are everyday people tasked with evaluating competing versions of events while absorbing days of testimony, exhibits, and expert analysis.
That is where Focus Graphics’ demonstratives became critical.
Using animations, trial graphics, and video compilations, Focus Graphics helped organize and present the evidence in a way that allowed jurors to see the sequence of events and understand how the various pieces of testimony and physical evidence fit together. Rather than forcing jurors to assemble fragmented information on their own, the visual presentations provided a clear and coherent framework for evaluating the facts. This is why visual communication has become such an important part of modern litigation strategy.
Following trial, the jury returned a verdict of more than $21 million in favor of the murdered man’s family. The security guard was sentenced, in an earlier criminal lawsuit, to life in prison after being found guilty of second-degree murder, unlawful use of a weapon with a firearm, and unlawful use of mace in the second degree.
Demonstratives bridge the gap between information and understanding. They help transform complicated facts into presentations jurors can follow, remember, and apply during deliberations.
In this case, the ability to clearly visualize the evidence helped the jury make sense of complex issues and contributed to a verdict exceeding $21 million.
“Seeing is believing. Jurors are far more likely to understand and retain information when they can visualize it clearly. Demonstratives like animations and video compilations help transform complicated facts into presentations juries can follow and remember.”
~Tom D’Amore Esq., Portland, OR D’Amore Law Group
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