Reality check: former TV news producers Rob Feldman and Keiko Johnson re-create events to bolster lawyers' arguments in personal injury cases.MIAMI Miami, cities, United States Miami (mīăm`ē, –ə). 1 City (1990 pop. 358,548), seat of Dade co., SE Fla., on Biscayne Bay at the mouth of the Miami River; inc. 1896. physician Angelo Gousse lived through an ordeal when the Los Angeles Police Department "LAPD" and "L.A.P.D." redirect here. For other uses, see LAPD (disambiguation).  This article or section is written like an . mistakenly arrested him for driving a stolen
rental car in 2001.
He got to live through it again--and again--when his lawyer, Browne Greene, hired two former TV news producers to make a 30-minute video re-creating his arrest on the Santa Monica Santa Monica (săn`tə mŏn`ĭkə), city (1990 pop. 86,905), Los Angeles co., S Calif., on Santa Monica Bay; inc. 1886. Tourism and retailing are important, and the city has motion-picture, biotechnology, and software industries. (10) Freeway. The idea, said Rob Feldman, president of Juris Productions Inc., was to pressure the city and Budget Rent A Car into settling Gousse's claims that he was permanently injured as a result of his treatment by the LAPD 1. LAPD - Link Access Procedure on the D channel. 2. LAPD - Los Angeles Police Department. . The re-enactment didn't prove to be pivotal in the case but it exemplifies a cottage industry cottage industry: see sweating system. in which Feldman and his partner Keiko Johnson are finding success. Feldman and Johnson left the newsroom at KNBC KNBC Kings Norton Bowling Club (Channel 4), where they produced the 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. newscasts, respectively, to make 30-minute videos that back up the plaintiffs view of events in wrongful death The taking of the life of an individual resulting from the willful or negligent act of another person or persons. If a person is killed because of the wrongful conduct of a person or persons, the decedent's heirs and other beneficiaries may file a wrongful death action or injury, medical malpractice Improper, unskilled, or negligent treatment of a patient by a physician, dentist, nurse, pharmacist, or other health care professional. and other tort claims. The videos take complicated cases and cast events in TV news magazine style, as if they would appear on "Dateline" or "20/20." They are usually shown during settlement conferences and arbitration hearings to convince defense attorneys and mediators of the strength of the plaintiff's case. If the case should go to trial, only parts of the film that involve sworn interviews can be shown to a jury. "There's an old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words A picture is worth a thousand words is a proverb that refers to the idea that complex stories can be told with just a single still image, or that an image may be more influential than a substantial amount of text. ," said Bruce Broillet, a partner of Greene's at Greene Broillet Panish & Wheeler LLP LLP - Lower Layer Protocol . "And I believe their videos can help to advance the learning curve of the decision makers on the other side of a case in an effective and condensed con·dense v. con·densed, con·dens·ing, con·dens·es v.tr. 1. To reduce the volume or compass of. 2. To make more concise; abridge or shorten. 3. Physics a. way." Using news In terms of sophisticated production values Production values is a media term for "production cost." It refers to the professional look, or "polish," of a production. Factors that affect perceived production value may include video and audio quality, lighting, number of errors, and amount and quality of special effects. , the partners claim to have few competitors. "That was one of the reasons we got into this," Feldman said. "We looked around and found our only competition would be people shooting bar mitzvahs and birthday parties who taped depositions on the side." Feldman and Johnson work on as many as eight videos per month, charging between $15,000 and $25,000 each. Part of the cost helps defray de·fray tr.v. de·frayed, de·fray·ing, de·frays To undertake the payment of (costs or expenses); pay. [French défrayer, from Old French desfrayer : des-, the expense of hiring local TV news crews and on-air "talent" who moonlight by serving as narrators. They won't say which newscasters have participated in the re-creations, noting only that it's generally allowed under station contracts as long as the work is uncredited un·cred·it·ed adj. 1. Not having been credited, as on a ledger: an uncredited deposit. 2. Not having been accorded due recognition: an uncredited discovery. . The videos can bear an uncanny likeness to a TV news report, although Feldman is clear about the partisan nature of Juris' business. "What we do is advocacy; not journalism," he said. "Our background is in journalism but we are advocating a point of view." Actors and scripted lines are avoided because it looks too much like a television show, although it's sometimes unavoidable, as with the Gousse case, where Juris rented the side of a freeway for filming and hired actors to play the roles of the police officers. A California Highway Patrol highway patrol n. A state law enforcement organization whose police officers patrol the public highways. officer was paid to monitor the production. (An L.A. Superior Court jury awarded Gousse $33 million in damages, but a Superior Court judge earlier this year called the award "wholly irrational" and ordered a new trial on damages.) Long hours Johnson and Feldman had worked at KNBC for about six years and started to feel burned out from the long hours and high stress levels. When Johnson's husband, an attorney, asked her for a referral to have someone to produce a video explaining a case being arbitrated, she started thinking. "I remember looking across my desk at Rob and saying, 'I think I've found something else we're qualified to do,'" Johnson said. "It wasn't long after that that we gave notice." Starting the business by using savings and some loans, they have not paid themselves through the first two years. "It was how much can we scrape together to get something done each week," Feldman said. The first film chronicled a motorcycle accident that the pair produced at cost to build up their portfolio. It wasn't until they began working for Greene Broillet that business began to pick up. "Once people saw we were working for that firm, which is one of the leaders in Southern California, it added a lot of legitimacy to what we were doing," Feldman said. "Browne Greene has been a great champion of ours. He has played our pieces for his friends and colleagues and that has been a tremendous source of business for us." Juris has since produced recreations for Johnnie Cochran's firm and for Torrance personal injury firm Agnew & Brusavich. By the end of its second year, the firm has outgrown its Pasadena offices and brought on five full-time employees for video editing, creating computer simulations and general office work. There also have been investments in several broadcast-quality cameras, along with high-end personal computers for generating the special effects that accompany some of the re-creations. "The scriptwriting, the video quality, the announcers they get--it's a first rate operation," said Bruce Brusavich, an Agnew & Brusavich principal. "I specialize in wrongful death cases and it's essential to establish who was at fault and how the loss has affected the lives of their loved ones. What Juris does shows that in a way that connects with anyone who has a heart." PROFILE Juris Productions Inc. Year Founded: 2002 Core Business: Taped re-enactments for plantiffs' counsel Revenues in 2002: $10,000 Revenues in 2003: $600,000 Employees in 2002: 2 Employees in 2003: 5 Goal: To be the first call made by trial attorneys when they get the big cases Driving Force: Telling stories |
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