John Morris Presents on Using GIS Technology and Digital Mapping at Trial

August 31, 2017

On August 31, 2017, John Morris teamed up with Matt Liapis, a GIS expert, to discuss GIS and digital mapping technology and how it can be used in litigation. Specifically, John explained how this technology was used by Morris DeVoe in obtaining a fifteen million dollar judgment. GIS presents a new opportunity for visualizing and analyzing property ownership on a massive scale and in a way that simplifies and quantifies a tremendous amount of data in simple to see and understand maps. Mat Liapis testified as a GIS expert in the trial and was able to effectively and efficiently demonstrate on digital maps the ownership of thousands of parcels of property at several different time periods. He was further able to visualize and quantify hundreds of lots upon which certain documents had been recorded. Using alternative methods of quantifying and presenting this data such as through traditional title searches and reports would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. In contrast, the GIS analysis and mapping was more persuasive, easily understood, and cost a small faction of that amount. Morris DeVoe uses cutting edge technology in litigation and trial both to increase the persuasiveness of their arguments and to keep costs down.