As a result of its numerous high profile successes
in these practice areas, Animators has emerged as the premiere design
firm for cases in the environmental, construction and aviation industries.
Animators’ extensive experience in these areas includes work on
some of the nation’s most famous airline disasters, billion dollar
environmental cases, and construction cases of national significance.
What these practice areas have in common is the need to work closely
with expert witnesses, who are usually engineers or scientists. Animators’
team of attorney consultants are particularly adept at working with
these highly technical individuals, whose knowledge in their particular
field often far surpasses their ability to effectively teach a lay audience.
Therefore, Animators serves as an excellent conduit between the highly
educated expert, and the persuasive communication of the expert’s
opinion to the judge or jury. Moreover, Animators’ use of secure
websites for each case allows experts from around the world, who are
working on a specific case, to collaborate in order to help arrive at
a coherent visual presentation for trial.
Aviation
Animators’ groundbreaking work on high profile aviation cases has
garnered national attention. Animators’ successful work for clients
in this industry has been well documented in numerous articles from
a broad range of media
outlets.
In one noteworthy aviation case, involving Steven Spielberg’s sister,
Animators was instrumental in helping to secure the largest verdict
stemming from airplane turbulence in history. This particular case arose
from a 1995 American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to New York during
which severe turbulence caused the plane to rise and fall 200 feet within
less than one second, throwing passengers from their seats.
In order to effectively depict the traumatic experience that the passengers
endured during the 28 seconds of intense turbulence, Animators created
a 2-D
animation of an airplane drawn to scale that moved from left
to right, leaving behind its path in the form of a graph, which showed
altitude with relation to time. In the left hand corner, Animators superimposed
an image of the Statue of Liberty and its corresponding measurements,
so that jurors could compare them with the altitude changes the plane
made and understand that it was essentially like jumping off the Statue
of Liberty. The use of the image of the Statue of Liberty was particularly
compelling since the case took place in New York.
In another particularly high profile case, Animators worked on a wrongful
death lawsuit brought as a result of the well-publicized ValuJet
plane crash in the Florida everglades. In that case, the problem presented
to the trial lawyers concerned the level of damages, because the deceased
was a divorced single mother who made only $16,000 a year as a waitress.
Through the use of a carefully crafted animation, which was synchronized
with the cockpit and cabin voice recorders, Animators was able to maximize
the plaintiff’s damages by demonstrating the terror of the three
and one half minutes it took the plane to fall from the sky. The animation
synched information from the flight data recorder, radar echoes, and
audio from the inside of the plane to create one of the most powerful
animations produced for use in the courtroom to date. The animation
is shown here, sans audio, as the audio is protected by court
order.
The animation was not intended to depict exactly what happened on ValuJet
592 as the fire burned through the floor of the passenger cabinet, but
rather, was designed to allow the viewer to use their own imagination
by hearing what happened and looking at the movements of the plane during
the last moments of the flight.
Thus, the animation essentially helped shift the focus of the trial
away from the deceased’s income and onto her pain and suffering
prior to death. The animation helped secure a very favorable settlement
for the client and resulted in the trial lawyers on the case describing
the animation as “an extremely important piece of evidence”
that was “well, well worth it.”
Energy/Environmental
Animators’ successful work in the Energy/Environmental arena has
made it the leading choice in the industry. Animators’ recent work
has included multi-billion dollar litigation in which Animators is helping
to defend the coal fired power plant industry from a legal assault by
the EPA and the U.S. Department of Justice. In this series of cases,
the EPA has attempted to show that the industry is modifying plants
rather than performing routine maintenance.
In order to counter the EPA’s contentions,Animators created a 2-D
animation
of the power plant at issue, which combined animation with actual video
footage in order to contrast the minute nature of the repairs with the
immense magnitude of the overall power plant. By utilizing actual video
footage of the power plant in conjunction with the animation, the jury
was given an actual reference in which to compare the animation, thereby
significantly increasing the animation’s credibility.
Construction
Animators’ recent work for the construction industry has included
cases stemming from a wide range of construction areas including: copper
mining, high profile eminent domain work in Florida, a major West Virginia
hydroelectric project, a Northern Virginia waste water treatment facility,
as well as casino construction litigation in Mississippi.
In one recent example, Animators was called upon to create an animation
explaining the highly technical copper leaching process in a case involving
a failed copper mine. 
In
that case, it was central to the trial team’s overall message that
the jury fully understand that the mine’s failure was due to unforeseen
geological factors which were in no way attributable to the client.
Therefore, it was critical that the jury comprehend the hyper-technical
copper leaching process. As a result, Animators was called upon to create
an animation, which was both informative and easy to understand. Achieving
this goal required that Animators not only work closely with experts
in both chemistry and geology, but also fully comprehend these difficult
scientific disciplines.
