Computer Animation - Admissibility in the Courtroom

Because accident reconstruction involves the simultaneous movements of vehicles and their occupants, it is often difficult to explain the sequence of events to lay audiences. Computer video animation provides a technique which allows the relative movement of vehicles to be illustrated as a function of time, and in three dimensions. As a consequence the technique has found increasing utility in the litigation arena. However, because of the flexibility that is available in creating computer animations, their admissibility in the courtroom can be brought into question. Therefore, it behooves the animator to address key admissibility issues before constructing an expensive and time consuming animation.