If your law firm wants to win more cases and attract more clients, customizable legal case timelines could be the answer. Properly created case timelines can help your attorneys illustrate the events of a case in an easy-to-understand chronological sequence. Your case will make more sense to jurors when presented along a compelling and engaging timeline. The process of making the timeline can also help your attorneys organize and strengthen their arguments, and clarify the important details in their minds. The attorney determines what key information should go into the timeline. Then, that timeline can be shared with jurors, associates, experts, etc., who will better be able to conceptualize the case in a much simpler manner than they could through word processing programs and yellow legal pads.
Choosing the Best Legal Case Timeline Software
While there are a number of Power Point-type timeline programs available, you should carefully determine your actual needs before choosing a timeline for your court case. Many of the current timelines on the market are only sufficient for very simple cases, and are often unable to handle more complex cases. An off-the-shelf timeline program may give you limited ability to customize or make the timeline interactive in a useful way, forcing all of your information into the same format. Also, some trial timeline templates use Adobe Flash, creating problems for those who use an iPad. Plus Flash is not easily integrated into a Power Point presentation without losing interactivity.
On the flip side, timelines for your case which use Power Point or Keynote, can lack the abilities and interactivity of Flash. Since no legal case is identical to another, your attorneys need to be able to carefully tailor each timeline to a specific case, and to a presentation format best suited to the needs of that case. While Power Point may be the gold-standard for an effective, powerful presentation, in this particular application, Power Point is lacking many features that enable busy attorneys to create superior litigation timelines for court.
What to Look for in a Trial Timeline Template
While not all attorneys are visual, jurors, as a general rule, are. Having compelling visuals and a solid, easily understood timeline of your case can truly make the difference in winning or losing the case. In fact, judge and juror retention can be significantly increased when visuals are used in conjunction with an oral argument. A properly made legal timeline can be clearly followed, reinforcing key facts along the way, with corresponding testimony and evidence. When you consider the sheer amount of details an attorney must have ready at any given time, you can see how the right legal case timeline software can assist in even the most challenging and stressful aspects of litigating.
Consider TrialLine by Law Father
TrialLine is a cloud-based mediation and trial presentation timeline software program for law firms that want to create efficient and easy to use legal chronologies for their cases. With TrialLine, you can easily organize and share your case events and related documents with staff, experts, juries, opposing counsel, and other attorneys. It is completely web-based and can be accessed and shared through any internet connection on any device. Sign up now to try it FREE FOR 30 DAYS!
Related Reading: How Lawyer Timelines Can Streamline Your Case