Keith Mitnik, Senior Trial Lawyer at Morgan & Morgan, shares his thoughts on what trials will look like following the pandemic, why empathy should lie at the heart of any jury verdict, and how Litify raises the bar for attorneys and their clients.

Watch his conversation with Litify Chief Revenue Officer Terry Dohrmann, or read the highlights below.

“I could put on a hell of a trial right here”

Asked whether he thinks jury trials will ever happen remotely, Mitnik says he doesn’t think so. "You can take a deposition over a Zoom all day long,” he says. “A jury trial’s different. It's about convincing and persuading. How do you watch all the jurors when you're talking? And how do the jurors see you and your body language and really assess your client the same on a TV [as they would in court]?"

Mitnik says he could be wrong, but he thinks that physically being in the same space is “so ingrained into the persuasion side of it, so ingrained into the back-and-forth.”

He also says that the vast majority of jurors, even those who at first showed up reluctantly or angrily, at the end of a trial feel like they have participated in something fulfilling and meaningful. Respect for the jury is paramount to the trial process, to the point that everyone in the court stands when they enter the room.

“It elevates the concept of justice, and all the sudden you're participating in it. I don't know how you could maintain that elevation that's so important remotely, with someone sitting at home on a screen."

That said, Mitnik says if jury trials do go remote, he’ll do them and do them well. “I guarantee you I could put on a hell of a trial right here,” he says. “But boy, I wanna be in that room. That room is sacred to me.”

How COVID-19 could impact jury selection and jury behavior

Although he acknowledges that we’re all in uncharted territory, Mitnik says that he thinks jury selection is going to be tougher because the epidemic has left tens of millions of Americans unemployed.

“People will say, 'Look, I lost my job. I've gotta interview; I cannot be here.' And I think judges will be very understanding and say, 'Okay, we'll bring in someone else to replace you.’”

Once the jury is seated (several feet apart from each other), Mitnik expects a surge in empathy for plaintiffs who have been injured through no fault of their own. Jurors who previously would have been skeptical of personal injury lawsuits might now relate to the plaintiff’s feelings of hopelessness, of being out of work, of there being no end in sight to their suffering.

As a silver lining to the crisis, Mitnik anticipates a “resurrection of humanity and caring,” adding, “I’m encouraged that trials are going to be better.”

Read more in The Essential Guide: Voir Dire Strategies From The Pros

“Before Litify, nothing would allow you to do that”

Mitnik raves about how much more efficiently he and his colleagues are able to do their jobs thanks to technology, citing TranscriptPad and TrialPad as two apps that they use regularly. “TranscriptPad is a thing of beauty. It's such a time-saving tool for getting ready for cross-examination, or emailing notes to your partner.”

He says attorneys used to have to lug two big trial bags of documents whenever they were heading to a deposition, to the point that all the lawyers his age have bad backs. Now everything is digital, and as for depositions, “We don’t even fly to take them anymore; we do them on Zoom!”

But Mitnik saves his strongest praise for Litify, which has completely transformed the way Morgan & Morgan handles cases.

“The ability we have now to watch what's going on with our cases, I mean it sounds like Star Wars compared to when I was growing up,” Mitnik says. “To be able to go in and see what all the lawyers are doing — are they doing A, B, and C? When are they doing it? Where is their case; is it moving, is it sitting? And I can do it on an individual lawyer real-time, right now.”

He says that Litify has “dramatically” improved the end product of their work by increasing visibility, consistency, and accountability. “You set all these benchmarks and timetables, and all the things that need to be done are done uniformly, and you know it’s being done well,” he says.

“Before Litify, nothing would allow you to do that. It was just trust. It was an honor system.”

Mitnik mentions that John Morgan demands A+ work from every single attorney, not A+ from some and B- from others. Litify has allowed the firm to meet that high standard of excellence.

“So yeah, technology's made a profound impact on the quality of the work and the quality in the courtroom, and at the end of the day, the quality of justice. That's what really matters."