Today’s shared story is from an attorney who chooses to remain anonymous.

He tells of a seminar he went to a number of years ago dealing with the uses of technology in the courtroom.

The presenter told of a case which involved an airplane crash in the Everglades. A 20 seater had gone down. As is often the case, one of the questions was whether the cause was pilot error or equipment failure.

To prove their case, counsel for the insurance company actually acquired a 20 seat airplane the same as the one that had gone down. And they crashed it! The plane had crash dummies in all seats which had been occupied at the time of the accident. Every observational and analytical device available at the time was used to record what happened, including damage to the plane but especially the injuries to the crew and passengers: How bones (skulls, necks, pelvises, arms, legs) were broken, how heads were impacted, passengers’ faces thrown into seats in front of them and so on. The idea was to show that the equipment did not fail; that the crash was caused by pilot error. Of course, films, inside and out were part of the project.

When all data from all the recording equipment was fully analyzed the exercise supported the insurance company’s case. But they did not use it! Reason: The films, pictures, descriptions and data painted so horrific a scenario that they knew the jury would be turned against them. They could not use their extremely expensive re-enactment of the accident.

Moral: Consider all consequences thoroughly before using technology to support your case.