Visually Appealing Legal Graphics

Legal information can be complicated, but that doesn't mean it has to be boring or ugly.  If you're looking for a break from page after page of double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman / Courier briefs, or if you're starting to see ghost images of the blue Westlaw header everywhere you go, then feast your eyes on the following articles from the past year that have visually spiced up legal information in appealing ways.

1.  A How-To Comparison and Flow Chart from the New York Times

Who says you have to compare the laws of different jurisdictions in an oversized, tortured table?  Get inspired by the visual journalists at the New York Times, who present some of the most convoluted laws from drastically different countries and states in easily digestible infographics.

In How to Buy a Gun in 15 Countries, a lightly annotated step-by-step how-to guide lets the reader compare the gun laws in fifteen different countries without getting bogged down by unnecessary legalese.

In What It Takes to Get an Abortion in the Most Restrictive U.S. State, side-by-side flow charts of the steps required to get an abortion in California and Mississippi visualize the many differences in legal restrictions you might face depending on what state you live in.

2.  A Colorful SCOTUS Graph from FiveThirtyEight

Rule 33 of the Rules of the Supreme Court of the United States might require a "clear, black image on white paper," but that shouldn't stop you from adding splashes of color to articles about our most distinguished court.

In How Kavanaugh Will Change the Supreme Court, bright turquoise, purple, and orange dots are used to represent various ideological "median" Supreme Court justices over the years based on their Judicial Common Space scores, with data collected from an article published in the Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization.  

3.  A Wall of Names from the Washington Post

While it can be easy to get lost in the sheer quantity of legal information, good visualizations will find a way to highlight important trends without neglecting the individual data components that make up the information.

In An Unequal Justice, the reader can scroll through the names of nearly 26,000 homicide victims whose murderers haven't been arrested, and sees highlighted the disproportionate number of those names that belong to the victims who are black.  This interactive graphic brings out the human side of tens of thousands of criminal homicides without letting the reader overlook racial disparities in the data.

4.  More Visualizations in Law!

Can't get enough legal infographics and interactive visuals?  Check out the examples at Open Law Lab's Visual Law Project and the Legal Design Labs' Visual Law Library.

For those looking for a more organized list of resources, Margaret Hagen has compiled a helpful Beginner's List of Links for Those Interested in Visuals + Law over at the Open Law Lab's blog.