The courts of Ontario have given guidance to expert witnesses who wish to use PowerPoint-type slides in their presentations in jury trials.
The key points are as follows:
“As a result of the foregoing I gave parties the following guidelines for use of PowerPoint slides at trial:
(a) The PowerPoints must be educational, not advocacy pieces.
(b) The information on the PowerPoint must be found in the report although it may be presented in a visually different manner than in the report.
(c) A slide tending to advocacy, such as the firefighter slide or the Newcastle Upon Tyne slide can be used if: it is a slide that was in existence at the time of or before the plaintiff’s treatment, it reflects the standard of care in Ontario at the time and it contains information found in that expert’s report. By way of example, if the firefighter slide was used in connection with educational materials for sepsis in 2007 and that materials is referred to in the relevant expert’s report, it could be used. Use would have to be agreed to or an evidentiary foundation for it would have to be established.
(d) The slides should not contain external marketing/accreditation information such as the University of Toronto coat of arms on Dr. Gill’s slides.
(e) The PowerPoint should not be a way of getting the expert’s report into the jury’s hands. PowerPoint may be an appropriate tool to educate about medical issues, to highlight certain points in an expert’s report, to put in graphic form complex data but not to reproduce or substitute a report. As a result, 79 pages of slides like those of Dr. Kumar would be unacceptable from the start.”
The judgment can be found here: https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2019/2019onsc4996/2019onsc4996.html