MD Communications-Five Tips to Persuasive Medical-legal Exhibits

Five Tips to Better Medical-legal Exhibits
Medical illustrators are highly trained graphics professionals that specialize in creating illustrations for the dissemination of medical and scientific information. Some medical illustrators specialize in creating illustrations for the legal profession. The following tips will help you keep cost down, get your exhibits on time, and get the most out of your experience in working with a medical illustrator to create courtroom exhibits.

Tip 1: Be Prepared
A medical illustrator can do his job best when you know what you want to show in your exhibits or at least have a clear idea of the direction you want to take. Though the medical illustrator can suggest ideas about how best to display the information, it is up to you to provide the direction for the medical illustrator.

The more time that the medical illustrator has to spend waiting on information, revising exhibits or researching subjects the more expensive the exhibits will be and the longer it will take to complete them.

Tip 2: Provide Pertinent Information Promptly
Provide the medical illustrator with all of the pertinent information he will need to design the exhibits as soon as possible. Most medical illustrators that specialize in medical-legal exhibits are experienced in reading all types of medical reports. Have copies of x-rays, CT scans, MRIs, pre-operative reports, post-operative reports, accident reports, depositions, or any other information that will help the medical illustrator thoroughly understand your case ready for him to take back to his studio.

Tip 3: Listen to Suggestions From the Medical Illustrator
Experienced medical illustrators have acquired years of knowledge that will help you make the best presentation possible. Years of experience have taught the medical illustrator what layout or format may work best or how many exhibits are needed to best display the information. When you hire a medical illustrator you are not just hiring someone that can draw, but some that has expert knowledge that you can tap into to do your best in court.

Tip 4: Allow Time to Produce the Exhibits
It goes without saying that it is best to give the medical illustrator the time needed to produce the exhibits. However, sometimes attorneys will hold off preparing exhibits for trial while trying to settle. If you find yourself in this situation consider the following. If you hire a medical illustrator to prepare exhibits with a very short turnaround he will add rush charges that will be passed on to you. Remember that most medical illustrators have several projects in house and if you wait to the last minute you may not be able to get the exhibits produced at all.

The best solution is to retain a medical illustrator at the beginning of a case that is likely to require exhibits, and provide him with tentative schedules, trial dates, basic information about the case. So if settlements fall through and you are faced with a trial, the medical illustrator can still effectively and affordably produce the exhibits you will need.

Tip 5: Know Your Copyrights
When you hire a medical illustrator to create exhibits for your case, you are licensing the use of the illustrations for the duration of the case. You cannot reuse the illustrations for any other purpose without permission from the illustrator. The illustrator always retains the copyrights to the illustrations, and will never work-for-hire without charging more for the work. For instance, the illustrator can reuse part or all of the illustration in another venue, like another exhibit, or an illustration for print. The illustrator always retains the right to reproduce the illustration for self-promotion.

If you decide that you don't want the illustrator to reuse the artwork he creates for your case somewhere else then you must let him know from the start that you want to purchase all copyrights. Be aware that purchasing all copyrights (a.k.a work-for-hire) is more expensive than licensing.

Visit Custom vs. Stock Exhibits to learn about the pros and cons of custom and stock legal exhibits.

Do you want to learn more about Medical legal illustration? Then get a copy of Mike de la Flor's new book, The Digital Biomedical Illustration Handbook from your local bookstore or online at amazon.com. Chapter 7 in the book features and overview of medical legal illustration, an interview with a practicing attorney and an indepth tutorial on how to prepare medical legal exhibits.