[wd_asp id=1]
In this lesson, you will learn the steps of presenting evidence in court, both physical and testimonial evidence. You will also learn what to say during the trial and what order to go in for evidence to be properly admitted.
Exhibits
- STEP 1 – Select the exhibits that prove or disprove facts.
- STEP 2 – Organize exhibits by numbering them consecutively.
- STEP 3 – Show them to your opponent.
Witnesses
- STEP 1 – Prepare the witness by eliciting testimony.
- STEP 2 – Show the exhibit to the counsel and witness.
- STEP 3 – Lay foundation to authenticate the exhibit.
- STEP 4 – Request admission of exhibits into evidence.
Transcript
An exhibit is a document or some object that is shown and identified in court to be used as evidence on a case. Exhibit may be medical records, tax returns, canceled checks, photographs, on and on and on.
You\’ll select your exhibits based on their importance to your case and the order in which you intend to present them during a hearing or a trial.
In other words, every piece of evidence you collect need not become an exhibit in your case.
If the exhibit is a document, make two copies of it. In court, you will give one to the other side, keep one copy for yourself, and give the original to the court. Pretrial matters, if there are motions to be considered there, you want to mark your exhibits as Exhibit A, Exhibit B, Exhibit C, Some courts prefer Exhibit 1, Exhibit 2, Exhibit 3.
Each court has a special rule for marking exhibits.
For trial or evidentiary hearings, just be sure you know what those rules are.
But in the actual hearing, your evidence will be assigned an identifying letter or number in either alphabetical or numerical order. And so in any motions that you do four trial, you\’ll do the same thing. You want to number your exhibits.
And then to introduce your exhibits in court, show the exhibit to the other party or the other party\’s attorney before you show it to the court.
The second way to present evidence is through witness testimony and witness identification of your evidence.
As you know, a witness is a person called by some party in a lawsuit to give testimony at a deposition or a trial before a judge or jury.
Now, as a pro se litigant, be aware that you can be your own witness.
You can take the stand and allocate as it\’s called or, simply state the facts that you want the court to consider.
Understand, of course, that you will be cross examined on your statement.
But you can also call as witnesses other people who may have direct and relevant information about your case, or people who keep business records or experts who\’ve been qualified by the court.
You can allow your witnesses to not only present your exhibits but to authenticate and identify your evidence as well.
Now let\’s step back a minute and talk about preparing your witnesses. It\’s a good idea before you call a witness to the stand to prepare each of your witnesses to testify.
First, in preparing your witness, write out the list of questions you expect to ask them, and then practice those questions with your witness.
You also wanna prepare your witness for cross examination by discussing the questions they\’re likely to receive from your opponent.
Now remind your witnesses that they must tell the truth, whenever they\’re testifying. They can certainly say, \”I don\’t know\” or \”I don\’t remember\”, if that is the truth, in response to any questions your opponent may ask. But the worst thing that can happen to you is to have a witness you\’ve called to the stand be caught in some untruth. That not only harms the evidence they may have presented on your behalf, but it harms your own credibility, and therefore any other witnesses you\’re calling to the stand. So make sure that they tell the truth.
If they need to elicit, some information that is harmful to your case, tell the truth, have them tell the truth, it\’s helpful for you to bring out that information rather than to have it elicited by your opponent.
Now just as you can subpoena a witness for deposition, you can also subpoena reluctant witnesses for court. But be careful to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of that because a reluctant witness may not be good for the party who subpoenas them.
You can also, as we discussed earlier, use a subpoena duces tecum to get a witness to come to court and testify in your case, but also to bring documents or other things that they can authenticate.
So now to present the evidence, your witness can testify about the exhibit to show that it is relevant to your case and that it\’s authentic. This is called laying the foundation.
After you\’ve laid the foundation, ask the judge to admit the exhibit into evidence. It is not evidence until it has been admitted into evidence.