We are all bombarded with statistics, infographics, and other data of one sort or another. As environmental clinicians, we regularly encounter data offered in support of one enterprise or another. These presentations range from the clearly slanted “arsenic is essential to human life” to more subtle uses of statistics by scientific experts. Sorting real information from mountains of fakery is hard enough on Facebook or Twitter. Where our clients’ interests are concerned, the stakes are higher. We need to know how data is used against our clients and how we can, on our clients’ behalf, present data to forward their goals.
We will begin with a short assessment of how clinics use data in their client representations, drawing on our own clinical practice and those of the attendees. Then, we will look at some graphical data presentations in a variety of settings and ask audience members to critique the charts and graphs shown. Finally, we will show participants an exercise that we use with students and ask them to think about how they might present data on behalf of a hypothetical client.
A useful tool not only for litigation-based clinics but for anyone whose representations involve communicating complicated facts and relationships to others.