Timelines are essential to just about any case. I’ve been
teased by various attorneys I’ve worked with that I always recommend a
timeline, and indeed it’s true.
But there is a method to my repeated,“You need a timeline!” The
movement of events across time is how jurors anchor testimony in their minds.
It’s how they create a “story” for themselves.
And the story is the single most compelling way to get facts
and information across to the jurors in a coherent, persuasive manner.
The reason a timeline works so well, is it answers the
fundamental question of storytelling: “And then what happened?” It ties
together apparently disparate testimony or pieces of evidence. It grounds any
narrative in logic, by assigning order to the events.
Timelines need to be designed around a horizontal axis
representing time, with “flags” or “boxes” pegged at the appropriate moments in
time. Timelines don’t need to be fancy, but different entities should have
different colored “flags,” for example, to differentiate them easily. Beyond
that, a graphics designer can help give a timeline more visual impact.
The temptation is often to put too much information on a
timeline: it’s a tool meant to emphasize and support, not reiterate all the
testimony. Several uncluttered, easy-to-read timelines are better than one
crowded with too much for the eye to readily grasp.