Attorney Uses Visual Aids in Opening to Tell Story of Restaurant Patron's Burn

If you're a plaintiff's attorney in a personal injury case, it's critical that your jury understands the circumstances of the accident at the heart of the case from your point of view. Visual aids such as photographs and computer simulations can help highlight the events that caused the accident. But, as Marc Howard showed in his opening statement of McCray v. Ming Xuan Inc, sometimes the most effective way to explain an accident is to reenact it yourself.

In this Georgia personal injury case from CVN Local, plaintiff Latressa McCray claimed that splash back from a tableside hibachi at defendant's restaurant burned her chest, causing her to trip and fall. In his opening statement, Howard established the accident scene with photos of the restaurant before reenacting the burn and demonstrating how McCray tripped over a tableside chair and fell injuring her wrist, neck, hip, and back. Howard's demonstration was more powerful than words alone, and it laid the groundwork for the jury to award McCray $20,000.