Clear Eyed Media

Attorney Peter Janci has spent nearly 20 years representing survivors of s*xual abuse. In this clip, he discusses the critical blind spot many parents have and why early action is so important, even if nothing turns out to be wrong.

(Link to full podcast episode in the comments).

Boys promised medical care instead met a "predator in a white coat."

And the abuse went on for decades.

Attorney Peter Janci describes conditions that led to an $18 million settlement in a child s*x abuse case against the federal government. It was part of $32.5 million paid to at least 20 victims.

In the latest episode of the Make Your Case podcast, Janci explains why enablers, not just the abuser, were to blame, how 170-year-old treaties played a part in the case, and what ultimately moved legal decision-makers.

Janci is based in Portland, Oregon. He's represented s*xual abuse survivors for nearly two decades.

Link to the full episode is in the comments.

How one body-cam video turned into an accountability story.

I fought for months to get the footage, filing appeals with the district attorney’s office and winning after police refused to release it.

After that, I paid a $210 bill for the video from an agency that publicly claimed to “believe in transparency.”

It showed an off-duty deputy who admitted to drinking, fell to the ground, vomited, and blacked out, then, after being given no blood-alcohol test, was sent home without a charge.

It also had more than a dozen silent gaps where the officer’s mic appeared to be turned off, even though department policy required continuous recording.
That became the story.

I built the video package by cross-referencing the footage, redaction logs, department policy, and Oregon law to show how the record didn’t match the official explanation.

The result: the district attorney’s office referred the case to the Oregon Department of Justice for review.

These days, I work with a professional camera crew and editing setup to help attorneys do the same thing in their own way: build fact-based visual stories that expose what really happened.

That mindset never changed. Whether it’s journalism or law, the truth only matters if you can prove it.

If you’d like to see what that looks like on screen, I can show examples in a private, no-obligation meeting.

“Good jury selection is like good therapy.”

That line from Tim Semelroth stood out to me in the latest episode of Clear Eyed Media's Make Your Case podcast.

Tim is a respected trial attorney in Iowa with more than 25 years of experience litigating truck crash and commercial vehicle cases.

We talked about the costly mistakes lawyers often make in trucking litigation, why these cases shouldn't be treated like car crashes, and how a family member’s observation in court likely changed the outcome of a case.

You can watch the full episode through the link in the comments.

A $100 million verdict almost didn’t happen because a temp worker had co***ne in his system.

Keeping that fact out of the trial was key to a historic outcome in a case that left a man paralyzed.

That was just one twist in the story of the largest bodily injury verdict in Connecticut history.

There was also an alleged corporate cover-up undone by what was found in a trash can, and a visual tool that proved critical to winning the case.

In this episode of Make Your Case, I spoke with Andrew Garza, Alexa Mahony, and Andrew Ranks about the strategy, the turning points, and the lessons for trial lawyers.

🎧 Full episode link in the comments.

"I cry every night."

Words that haunt me as a legal storyteller from a case that shows, in a raw and harrowing way, the kind of work I do.

It’s what a mother told me when I reported this story about her daughter dying in jail, and the $650,000 wrongful death settlement that followed.

I produced this TV report as a journalist in one day in 2017. Today, I create settlement documentaries, which are often longer, that help attorneys present the full human impact of a case.

The report has:
✔️ A clear timeline
✔️ Real people telling their own story
✔️ Documented facts that are impossible to ignore

I can’t share examples of my work for Clear Eyed Media. They’re used in private mediation. But I can share this.

If you’re a trial lawyer and want to talk about using video in your next case, which can boost leverage and settlements, feel free to reach out.