Litigation Support

It’s important to note that Sanction II is a document and video presentation program for trial, not a trial preparation manager. If you are looking for a way to enhance your courtroom line of attack with electronic documents, deposition sound-bytes and colorful presentations, then this is your program.

I found the program easy to install and relatively easy to learn, but it might have too much of a learning curve for some of my more impatient colleagues. If your patience with learning new programs is questionable, I would suggest having a paralegal or vendor help.

New Improvements
Sanction II’s many new features include the addition of specialized tabs to make finding functions easier and a few added features, such as multiple transcript searching and Web-enabled components. Users of prior versions of Sanction will still recognize the program and the basic features that made it successful. Since there are too many new features to mention here, I have narrowed it down to a few noteworthy additions.

Sanction II was simple enough that I could load text files of document images, deposition transcripts and MPEG files of digitized deposition videos with no assistance using the drag-and-drop feature. You need a scanner to load documents into your computer yourself or have a vendor scan documents for you in a TIFF format. Images also can be added through several methods including industry standard load files as well as dragging and dropping from Windows Explorer.

Sanction II has a feature that converts regular ASCII files of deposition transcripts to TIFF images, which is easy to use. However, digitizing and synchronizing my deposition videotapes and transcripts required a vendor’s expertise.

Once I generated and saved the files I intended to use, I then used the drag-and-drop feature to add them to the Sanction II program to create my courtroom presentation. I saved presentation files directly on my hard drive, but you can save them on your laptop or on a CD-ROM for use in the courtroom. Sanction II’s presentation folders allow a user instant access to exhibits in the presentation mode with the click of a mouse. When going to court, you will need a large display device such as a multimedia projector or a large monitor in order to output your presentation from your laptop.

A Search of Last Resort
Sanction II has features for searching document data and deposition transcripts. It’s useful, but less powerful than a database product like Summation. It’s probably helpful for last minute searches, but would not be useful for case management. Stick with industrial strength databases for that task. If you use Summation or Concordance to index your documents, you can import data from those programs to Sanction II.

Exhibit Studio
Sanction II has a new feature called “Exhibit Studio,” which is similar to Microsoft PowerPoint. With this feature, I was able to create colorful slides with bullets and hyperlinks to documents. Creating the hyperlinks is a multistep process that requires you to have the linked files saved in Sanction II. You can’t link to documents outside the program. Exhibit Studio itself is built into Sanction II and is exceptionally easy to use. For those who prefer PowerPoint however, Sanction II allows you to import complete slideshows.

Clips and Soundbites
Creating deposition clips is by far the premier feature of Sanction II. If you want to play back only a few lines of a deposition during a closing argument, all you need to do is type in the page and line numbers from the deposition transcript and the system displays the video and sound. If you created a clip list in Word or any other text editor, the clip needs to be saved as a regular text (.txt) file for importing.

The simplest way to create a video clip is to highlight the desired text, click on “create clip” and give it a name. The clips can be saved with easy to identify titles. It is a seamless process that produces professional-looking results.

My second favorite function of Sanction II is creating text clips. The program allows you to open a TIFF image of a document, highlight the portion of the text you want to use in your presentation or type the text directly into the text clip window. When you save the text clip, it’s converted to a TIFF giving you the option to annotate further when you present the clip in court. You can add colors and highlighting to make it more dramatic. It’s a great feature for jazzing up your presentation.

Sanction II is an impressive presentation software package. I recommend it to any attorney who is comfortable using computers during an oral argument and examination. Since the hard work of loading the images and creating your presentation is done well before trial, it takes the stress out of remembering file names and locations. You can point and click with confidence as you argue your case.

Sanction II now integrates with RealLegal Binder (reviewed on Page 51). Sanction II users can download a free upgrade that includes this capability at www.verdictsystems.com.

Price: $595, single user license; discount for 10 or more licenses; existing Sanction, Version 1.x users can upgrade for $150 per license.

Windows 95/98/NT 4.x/2000/Me

Reviewed by Paul D. Pollard, director of
litigation support for Fish & Richardson in
San Diego.

Dec/Jan '02 Issue

PROS
The ability to create video clips of depositions and text clips of documents is easy to use and gives professional results.

CONS
Attempts to add expanded search functions are only marginally useful.

VERDICT
Fantastic program for attorneys who want to give their courtroom presentation a technological edge.

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Updated 11/29/01
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