What Medical Animation Can Achieve in Court

medical animation

Medical animation, a form of legal animation, has come a long way from the complex medical charts and 2D diagrams used in the 1800s and 1900s. But how was medical animation founded, and more importantly, how does it benefit your civil case?

It started with Max Brödel, who has been commended as the father of modern medical illustrations. Around 1894, he began to illustrate surgeries at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He focused on depicting the accuracy of the anatomy and the surgeon’s perspective during the procedures.

Brödel’s Illustrations of Cushing’s Transsphenoidal Operation, Journal of Neurosurgery, 2011

As technology has evolved, graphics have become more sophisticated and even turned into animations. While medical animations originated primarily to fulfill educational needs, in the last several decades they have also become a valuable resource for attorneys and expert witnesses alike. Medical animations, i.e., visuals classified as demonstrative evidence, enhance your key arguments to a judge, jury or arbiter.

Additionally, they add credibility to civil cases, and help your average juror who is uneducated in the medical field understand complex jargon and reports. To tell your client’s medical journey in today’s technologically-advanced world, persuasive courtroom visuals are essential.

Visualize Your Client’s Medical Journey

A key element in litigation is simplifying your case’s facts for the jury or other parties. As a patient’s medical narrative can include various medical professionals, diagnoses, reports, and medications, that simplicity can get lost in all of these details.

For example, without the spine animation above, the attorney in this case would have only had operative reports and radiology imagery to reference. Presenting this evidence in court on their own, even backed by expert testimony, would be fairly complex for the audience to follow. By leveraging this medical animation, the attorney was able to visualize their client’s cervical, lumbar, and spine surgeries in an accurate manner, while simplifying the story to bring a better understanding to the audience.

In a civil negligence case, an animation can show various perspectives during procedures, or focus on the injuries sustained before or after. When plaintiff attorneys use medical animations to help tell the core part of their argument, it fosters empathy for what their client(s) went through. If in trial, this is a persuasive strategy for gaining a more favorable verdict. 

And when defense attorneys use it, they can help remove emotion and simplify complexities into an easy-to-follow narrative. If you are on the defense’s legal team, a 3D medical animation can also reinforce your expert’s testimony. This provides support by visually explaining how your client was not liable and providing your case more credibility.

During one medical malpractice case, medical legal graphics created a foundation for portraying the plaintiff’s medical journey. A one-minute video made all the difference for determining liability, and the end result was an $8 million settlement.

Explore what medical animation services would best suit your civil case!

A Medical Animation Establishes Credibility to Your Case

A medical animation adds credibility to both defense and plaintiff attorneys. There’s a larger impact if a medical animation accompanies a verbal expert deposition or testimony. 

There is one important step for using medical visuals: consulting and collaborating with a medical expert for all animations and stills used. One of the common, avoidable missteps we see some attorneys make is that they do not collaborate with experts on their medical graphics.

Once the accuracy is validated, these medical animations help the jury visualize what happened in mere seconds — and not just juries; also judges, the opposing legal team, and other important legal parties.

How do medical graphics help persuade the jury?

While the jury may hear the evidence and see the evidence, you need the jury to UNDERSTAND the evidence. Individual jurors listening to complex oral testimony will create their own vision of your case, which can be unpredictable. 

Medical graphics enable you to leave the jury with a unified, dominant image that you choose. They achieve this by reducing complex terms into a simple video or image.

Fact-finders, such as the jury, learn and retain more information when attorneys use medical graphics. The use of 3D visuals greatly improves the jury’s understanding of technical medical language used within a courtroom.

Unravel Complex Medical Terminology Through Visuals

Do you know what a “Right Maxilla Fracture” is? Most likely not, and it’s probable that most common people, like those on a jury, are also unsure.

There’s no need to pull out a dictionary when you have a 3D medical animation. Because medical malpractice cases are, more often than not, highly complex, it can be a challenge for attorneys to highlight the most important aspects of their case.

The best way to achieve a successful settlement or verdict is to simplify those intricate ideas down to the details that are the most important. 

Medical Animation Graphic Still

Sample Medical Animation from Courtroom Animation

Instead of orally explaining jargon-filled reports, surgery and other medical data, an accurate surgery animation can do the heavy lifting. Communicating concepts is easier with a visual than without. No matter what format your visual uses, using even one has various benefits during mediation and/or trial.

Medical Animations Come in Many Forms

Medical illustrations are not only limited to lengthy 3D videos. A medical animation studio can create visuals in various formats and lengths such as:

  • Medical graphics & stills
  • Surgery animations
  • Summary of injury animations
  • Timelines
  • And more!

Remember, whether you are on the defense or plaintiff’s legal team, a medical animation video is key in depicting the journey of your client. This timeline can cover months or even several years, depending on the statute of limitations for your case.

Medical illustrations also heighten your case’s credibility during settlement discussions or trial. When an attorney has an accurate medical animation and a medical expert to validate it, it conveys to the opposing legal party that you are prepared to go to trial if necessary.

Don’t risk a lower settlement or verdict — learn how your civil case can be strengthened by a medical animation with a no-obligation quote today. Our experienced animation team has a 99% admittance rate with over 2,000 cases.

“Courtroom Animation’s cutting-edge work is of the highest quality in the [legal] industry. They did a fantastic job with the medical illustrations and video simulations to powerfully convey our client’s injuries to the jury.”

Spencer Lucas, Attorney at Panish Shea & Boyle LLP
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