Demonstrative Advocacy : The Genesis

Demonstrative Advocacy has a noble genesis. To meaningfully understand the root of its values and strengths, a quick historical trip over 20 centuries is necessary, as shown and explained below:

1st Century :

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was an engineer during the early reign of Augustus. He wrote on many topics including ancient inventions, structural harmonics, acoustics and proportions. Despite his significant contributions only his middle name is vaguely familiar to us today because of a famous sketch.

1st - 6th Century :

Vatsyana wrote the book Kama Sutra (Aphorisms of Love) during this time in India. At the same time or soon thereafter illustrations were created to show the intended meaning. The text without the illustrations lacked specificity of meaning.

15th Century :

Leonardo da Vinci was the illegitimate son of a lawyer who was an inventor, engineer and artist. Da vinci sketched the well known encircled Vitruvian Man. Da vinci integrated Vitruvius' text on human symmetry with his encircled sketch of the human body to dynamically demonstrate the symmetrical proportions only described by Vitruvius in words. Leonardo and the Vitruvian Man became timeless, however the poor but talented Vitruvius was all but forgotten.

18th Century :

Ferdinand de Saussure studied language in Switzerland. He submitted that there was no direct connection between a word (known as a symbol and a subset of signs) of any language and the actual meaning, which is carried by the word. For example, the word "cat" is not actually a cat. The meaning of cat could be represented by any string of letters. Indeed, in French cat is known as "chat".

18th Century :

Rudolphe Topffer was the first in Europe to integrate simply words and pictures. No thought was given to Semiotics but it was a catapult leap in literature and communication. Later Topffer became the Professor of Rhetoric at the Geneva Academy of Belles-Lettres.

18th Century :

C. S. Peirce studied language in the United States. An important contribution was his drawing distinctions between signs and meanings. For example, a photograph directly conveys the thing depicted in the photograph but is less comprehensive than the thing itself. By further example, a photograph of a damaged vehicle is better than oral evidence but less comprehensive than showing the actual damaged vehicle.

19th Century :

I. A. Richards (with the help of C. K. Ogden) in the United States showed that words do not have "meaning" at all. Words are given subjective meaning by the users based on their experiences and language conventions. Some words were found especially subjective because convention on meaning was even wider for such words. This discipline is now known as Semiotics. For example, our research shows that the word "catastrophic" is given different meanings by both plaintiff and defense counsel and indeed between all counsel regardless of their orientation.

20th Century :

Justice Traynor of the Supreme Court of California quoted from Richards and Ogden's work entitled "The Meaning of Meaning" to allow extrinsic evidence on the meaning of a plain term in an insurance contract despite the parol evidence rule. Justice Traynor held that "[t]he meaning of particular words of groups of words varies with the "... verbal context and surrounding circumstances and purposes in view of the linguistic education and experience of the users and their hearers or readers (not excluding judges). A word has no meaning apart from these factors..." Pacific Gas & E . Co. v. G. W. Thomas Drayage Co. 69 Ca. 2d 33 (1968).

• U .S . Court of Appeals : "Corbin recently has published a masterful discussion of that topic in which he reports the following: There exist no methods which will 'infallibly lead to one correct understanding' of another's words because in 'reading each other's words, men certainly see as through a glass, darkly'; the trouble with the belief that words have 'one true meaning' is that the phrase 'one true meaning' lacks 'one true meaning'; to 'elucidate the meaning of the word 'mean' requires fourteen long columns of fine print in the Oxford Dictionary'". Larson v. Jo Ann Cab Corp. (1954) 209 F.2d 929.


• Ontario Court of Appeal : "Most cases that go through trial and onto appeal will involve evidence open to more than one interpretation." Waxman v. Waxman [2004] O.J. No. 1765 (C.A.).

21st Century :

Professor Horn of Stanford studied the integration of words and images and the impact thereof. In his book "Visual Language" he detailed studies in business where such integration consistently produced greater consensus, persuasiveness, and credibility. The discipline of Semiotics and its application to advocacy, the research development and testing of techniques, were the next major steps.

2003 - Graphicus' Work :

Graphicus Persona understood the frustrations of trial lawyers as a result of opposing counsel's minimization of textual evidence, misinterpretations, the risks of getting the "wrong" jury/judge or plain and simple bias. The unseen truth was replaced by subjectivities, which in many instances was not even known until the decision was released.

Graphicus studied and applied the above disciplines (especially Semiotics) to civil advocacy, which eventually led to the multi-disciplinary subject of Demonstrative Advocacy. Frequently, used legal vernacular (e.g. breach, equity, or moderate) appearing in submissions or textual evidence was given particular attention.

In Demonstrative Advocacy, the textual evidence (in Motions, Mediation and Trial) are visually defined with real and illustrative demonstrative evidence based on six legal purposes and thirteen techniques. The purposes and techniques were honed over the years to accurately communicate the truth. Consistency and credibility emerged and subjectivities were constrained.

The witnesses intended meaning is demonstrated and therefore correctly understood by all to allow for a just assessment of damages, resist spin, constrain subjectivity, ethically enhance credibility and expedite settlement. The superior court of Justice recently held that Demonstrative Advocacy "constrains subjectivity, reduces acrimony and expedites settlement". See Treyes v. OLGC at Critical Case Law.

Today Graphicus Persona is a global leader in Demonstrative Advocacy, and the construction of tailored visual strategy for motions, trial or mediation. It has an enormous bank of tested legal precedents covering many areas of civil litigation. See Lawyer Testimonials.