by Natasha Khairullah
Staff Writer
The life of a trial lawyer has just become a little more simple.
Thanks to Video Law Services (VLS), a company that produces Settlement and Day in the Life documentaries that are used to bolster plaintiffs’ cases at mediation and at trial if necessary, are taking the place of walking into a mediation with an armload full of files and discs. VLS will now provide legal professionals with the option of utilizing one of the most popular legal software programs and a free tutorial provided by the VLS staff to go along with it.
The software is known as Visionary Legal Technologies, and is used by legal professionals nationwide.
Michaela Miller, owner and founder of VLS, says the software has been available to the public for a few years, but it’s only been over the past year that the free tutorial has been offered to clients, along with the software.
“What we were finding was that people could purchase the software, but they didn’t necessarily know how to use it,” said Miller. “We wanted to offer them a few more options when it came to putting together their presentations. This will definitely make things a bit easier.”
The case management and trial presentation software infuses the newest technologies with old ones used in common software programs such as Microsoft Office Suite to help legal professionals save time, lower their expenses, consolidate used software programs and organize presentations. However, the software’s key component is its storage capacity. Legal files that once took hours to leaf through can now simply be flipped through with the click of the mouse.
VLS Multimedia Director Larry Edwards said Visionary’s software is actually very simple to use but sometimes, because of the services it provides, users become overwhelmed with how to navigate their way through all the seemingly complex features.
“It’s really not that difficult at all but we want to let them know that we can still help users if necessary,” said Edwards. “We begin by setting up a very basic profile by asking them how complex or simplistic they want their presentation to be.”
From there, Edwards said the presentation takes mere hours to put together and can employ everything from short video clips to highly sophisticated word searches.
Although VLS serves high-profile clients all over the United States like Johnny Cochran’s firm, some of its most loyal clients are from Jacksonville, including Bob Spohrer, partner at Spohrer, Wilner, P.A.
Rodney Margol is an attorney with Margol and Pennington and was one of the first in Jacksonville to utilize Visionary Software with the help of VLS. Margol says the tool not only helped him settle a case by capturing the depth of loss his client suffered after an accident that caused his wife’s death, but it also helped him gain the confidence to bring more detailed and relevant information to future cases without feeling like he had to limit info because it would be hard or time-consuming to access during a presentation.
Technological innovation is nothing new to VLS. The company – which currently boasts a success rate of 95 percent – was founded by Miller after she got into a serious car accident that left her wheelchair-bound for a few months. Since she was a former broadcast news producer, she decided to videotape her injuries and its effects for legal purposes upon the advice of her doctor. From there, a career started.
The documentaries that VLS produces are shot in the style of broadcast news investigative features. Miller credits digital technology and a crew of former television cameramen and producers for the look.
“Plus our depth is a really strong point of ours,” said Miller of the VLS’ experienced staff. “Everyone here has a pretty detailed background.”
VLS produces everything from “Day in the Life documentaries” to extensive “Dateline-quality” features.
“We know how to take the big picture and narrow it down,” said Bobby Thomas, Vice President of VLS. “We can put that picture in a 10 to 20 minute documentary that looks like ‘Dateline’ or ‘20/20’ and has the power to teach because we all learn visually.”
Florida law requires cases to go to mediation before trial and that’s what these settlement documents are designed for — to show at mediation to hopefully avoid a trial, said Miller.
With traveling, interviewing, filming, writing and editing, VLS produces two settlement documentaries a week. Each one is about 10-15 minutes long.
Miller said Visionary is just one more way that VLS is working to help broaden their services.
“This is just one more layer to help us better serve our clients,” she said about the documentaries graphically depicting the strength of a case to opposing attorneys. “And it helps us reach our ultimate goal, which is making the other side feel the pain.”