Video in Appellate Opinion: An advance in Jurisprudential Communication
Mediation is only one way to reach an outcome where parties have control. The opposite is to let the court decide and then appeal. The outcome can be anything, and sometimes the courts are innovative in their approach. Here is an example of such innovation that could just as easily be found in a civil opinion where mediation might have prevented an appeal.
Justice David Newell and the unanimous CCA for including digital media access within a recent opinion about demonstrative video in a closing argument. In an innovative application of technology in jurisprudence, the opinion includes a hyperlink so that people reading online can click to watch the video itself. The Court also created its own page devoted to media that has been introduced into the record (patterned after the United States Supreme Court’s page).
Here is the opinion:
http://search.txcourts.gov/SearchMedia.aspx?MediaVersionID=2b30fe7f-576e-432e-98f9-9210639de506&coa=coscca&DT=OPINION&MediaID=59ae6b95-cd58-43ce-b3e3-43277db866ff&fbclid=IwAR14rhxRx8wsliN3nibflpHgsR3gkXWme35jYv4gSxggD1qNU5UjoIt0z2sHere is a link to access video from within the opinion: https://pbvideo.vids.io/videos/709ddcb51a17eac3f8/pd-0207-18-milton-exhibit.
Here is the media page: https://pbvideo.vids.io/videos/709ddcb51a17eac3f8/pd-0207-18-milton-exhibit
By comparison, shown here are still shots from within the opinion itself.
This is an advance for appellate jurispridence in Texas.