Says Andrew Colton: Personal Injury Day In The Life Video and Legal Settlement Documentaries Are Executive Summaries, Not Novels. His Approach Has Helped Induce More Than $1B.
Nationally renowned legal video producer Andrew Colton, principal of Colton Legal Media, recently addressed hundreds of attorneys and paralegals at a major legal conference in Nashville, TN.
“You want these videos to watched,” said Colton, who also serves as Communications Director for the nearly 500-member Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys, a non-profit organization dedicated to highway safety. “If they are long, boring and never viewed, they are completely ineffective.”
Andrew Colton is an award winning former on-air national network news correspondent. As lawyers watched several samples of his work produced with many of the nation’s leading trial attorneys, Andrew made the point that a traditional television news story is 90 seconds. While that’s unrealistic for a settlement video, Colton said “they should almost always be under ten minutes. These should cover the forest and trees, but save the leaves and branches for your memos and briefs.”
Andrew’s videos have been used in high-stakes, high-value litigation around the world — including aviation disasters, Amtrak crashes, major truck crashes, high-stakes medical malpractice litigation, and a stunning case of corporate negligence that involved prosecution by the United States Department of Justice.
“Some people believe that a day in the life video or a settlement video need to be 30 minutes, sound like a public television documentary, and move slowly. Quite the opposite is true. You want a CEO, insurance company executive or lead General Counsel to watch these productions. These are busy people. The legal video productions should be an executive summary of your case, not a novel.”