New visual technologies in court: directions for research

Area of Science:

• Legal Technology
• Psychology of Law
• Communication Studies

Background:

• Litigation is increasingly influenced by visual communication tools like videoconferencing and animations.
• The impact of these technologies on legal decision-making processes is not well understood.
• A conference convened experts from psychology, law, and technology to address these knowledge gaps.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify key issues regarding courtroom technology use that warrant empirical investigation.
• To propose research designs and methodologies for studying these issues.
• To establish a framework for guiding future research in this domain.

Main Methods:

• The paper synthesizes discussions and recommendations from a Research Conference on Courtroom Technology.
• It proposes a research framework considering technology features, audience, and legal strategy.
• Illustrative empirical study designs of varying complexity are outlined.

Main Results:

• Identified critical research questions concerning the effects of visual technologies in legal settings.
• Developed a conceptual framework to guide empirical investigations.
• Suggested specific research paradigms and future research directions.

Conclusions:

• Further empirical research is essential to understand the influence of new visual technologies on legal decision-making.
• A structured approach considering technological, user, and contextual factors is necessary for effective research.
• This work provides a foundation for future studies on technology's role in the courtroom.