Problem
Oil theft was at the heart of this 3 1/2-month whistleblower trial in federal court.

After consulting and designing graphics for many months with the plaintiff trial team, the lead attorney asked us to work with his expert witnesses, one of whom was a probability expert who claimed to have a key PowerPoint™ graphic that would rivet the jury.

His b&w graphic (shown) was intended to demonstrate how crude oil was being stolen a little bit at a time over a long period. Yet to a lay audience, his graphic communicated none of his crucial technical information.




  Solution
After meeting with the expert and hearing the explanation of his data, we suggested a real world context for his story - one to which jurors could relate. Then we burrowed down into the expert's graphic, reframing the scale and highlighting the key information.

We followed by recommending that a simple sequence of frames travel backward in time, from the years of "probable" purchase of crude oil to the most "improbable."

These simple frames allowed the lead attorney and his expert witness to move through the expert's testimony at their pace, but with a growing story and punch line, that you will recognize as you step through the sequence yourself.

With the redesigned data analysis graph and the new sequence, plaintiff's expert witness clearly persuaded the jury that such an occurrence could only happen naturally once in 3 trillion times.

The jury awarded our client $237 million.

Next > Mitigating damages through reenactment.