I have been trying for some time to construct pictures or diagrams that usefully depict the relationship between evidence and decision making in litigation over time. But none of the devices that I have toyed around with -- they were principally tree-like structures or diagrams -- satisfied me. I found it difficult to use them to depict how events might change available evidence and information and how such events, by generating changes in evidence and information, might change the framework within which decisions in litigation are made.

 Recently I concocted a rather different way of visualizing the ìdynamicsî of litigation and of proof in litigation. Please see the diagram below. Unlike the tree-like diagrams I had been fiddling with before, my more recent way of visualizing evidentiary processes splits the universe into two separate parts: (i) the world, which consists of matters such as events, and (ii) thought, which includes conceptualizations that I call frames.

 What do you think of my "Cartesian" concoction? Is it just a concoction? Or do you think it might lead to a better way of thinking about and understanding decision making about litigation and about evidence and proof in litigation?

 I welcome your thoughts and comments: peter@tillers.net