Document type: Checklist Practice area: Litigation — Trial Practice Jurisdiction: United States Last reviewed: 5 September 2026

Section 1 — Twelve weeks: build the list from the verdict form

  • Draft verdict form prepared
  • For each question, the facts that must be proved listed
  • For each fact, the evidence that proves it identified
  • Only then the production searched — not the reverse
  • Every candidate exhibit tested: what does this prove that another exhibit does not?
  • List cut accordingly

Section 2 — The exhibit database

Every exhibit gets a row:

  • Proposed number · Bates range · one-line description · date · author and recipient
  • What it proves, tied to a verdict form question
  • Sponsoring witness
  • Authentication route: 901(b)(1) / 901(b)(4) / 901(b)(9) / 902(11) / 902(13) / 902(14) / stipulation
  • Hearsay route: not for truth / 803(6) / party admission / other
  • Redactions required
  • Objections anticipated
  • Status
  • A blank "what it proves" means remove it. A blank "authentication route" means an unsolved problem
  • Views generated: by sponsoring witness (witness folders); by authentication route (certification and stipulation work)

Section 3 — Ten weeks: certifications

  • Every exhibit capable of certification identified — third-party records, own-client records, system output
  • 902(11) certifications drafted tracking 803(6): made at or near the time by someone with knowledge; kept in the course of a regularly conducted activity; regular practice
  • 902(12) for foreign records
  • 902(13) for records generated by an electronic process or system
  • 902(14) for data copied from a device or file, with hash verification
  • Served with the exhibits and written notice of intent, 60+ days before trial
  • Objections tracked and defects cured promptly — most concern whether the declarant is a qualified custodian

Section 4 — Eight weeks: stipulations

  • Working session with opposing counsel calendared, with lists on screen
  • Each exhibit: authenticity stipulated? admissibility stipulated? objection and ground?
  • Result documented in three categories for the pretrial order: both stipulated; authenticity only; contested
  • Understand that stipulating authenticity concedes nothing substantive — every objection survives

Section 5 — Six weeks: redactions

  • Categories identified: privilege, protected personal information, in limine exclusions, prejudicial irrelevance, protective order material
  • Redactions applied to a flattened file — black boxes over layered text can be removed
  • Redacted file opened and searched for the redacted text to confirm removal
  • Redaction log: exhibit, location, basis
  • Redacted versions provided to opposing counsel; disputes raised in limine
  • One named owner for redactions end to end
  • Version control: database, display system, admitted version, and jury room set are the same file

Section 6 — Six weeks: motions in limine

  • Worth filing: discrete legal grounds; expert exclusions; demonstrative or animation rulings; evidence whose mention would prejudice; Rule 1006 scope
  • Not worth filing: generic relevance motions; individual document objections; motions the court will defer anyway
  • Definitive ruling requested — a provisional ruling generally does not preserve the objection
  • Standing objection status clarified
  • Rulings translated into a one-page "do not mention" list for the whole team and the client

Section 7 — Four weeks: foundation scripts

  • One page per exhibit category, executable by whoever examines
  • Business record: recognition · what it is · kept by the company · who creates them · knowledge · timing · regular practice · ordinary course · offer
  • Photograph: recognition · familiarity with the scene on the date · fair and accurate depiction · offer
  • Video, silent witness: system operated · description and storage · functioning properly · retrieval · no alteration · offer
  • Audio: recording authenticated · voices identified (901(b)(5)) · audibility addressed
  • Electronic communication: distinctive characteristics · metadata · participant testimony
  • Database output: 901(b)(9) process and system · query logic explained
  • Team run-through, read aloud once — this finds the omitted element every time

Section 8 — Three weeks: demonstratives

  • Status decided for each: Rule 1006 summary (substantive, jury room) or demonstrative (illustrative, not admitted)
  • Rule 1006 requirements: underlying material admissible; produced at a reasonable time; witness testifies to preparation and accuracy; keep it arithmetic
  • Neutral labels — no conclusions in headings, no fault-implying colour coding
  • Every number traceable to an admitted exhibit or testimony
  • Legible from the jury box, tested in the actual room
  • One idea per demonstrative
  • Where both are wanted, build both versions
  • Exchanged per the pretrial order; opposing late exchanges objected to
  • Animation vs simulation distinguished honestly — a simulation is substantive and faces Rule 702
  • Inputs and assumptions disclosed
  • Tested on someone outside the case: understood within ten seconds?

Section 9 — Deposition designations

  • Designated by page and line per the pretrial order
  • Counter-designations under Rule 106 — as amended, the completing portion is admissible over a hearsay objection
  • Objections by line, with grounds; rulings obtained before trial
  • Edited video verified against the rulings, line by line, by someone who did not do the editing
  • Transcript provided as an aid; recording is the evidence
  • Running time tracked against any court-imposed limit

Section 10 — Two weeks: technology and logistics

  • Courtroom visited; display capability, monitors, control, connections, operator seating confirmed
  • Actual files tested on the actual system
  • Paper enlargements of the key exhibits prepared as a fallback
  • Printed sets: court, witness, opposing counsel
  • Dedicated operator assigned — counsel should not run the display while examining

Section 11 — Objection deadlines and waivers

  • Rule 26(a)(3): objections other than relevance under 402 and 403 are WAIVED if not made within 14 days
  • Rule 103: timely objection stating the specific ground for admitted evidence
  • Rule 103: offer of proof for excluded evidence
  • Rule 106: completeness invoked when the excerpt is introduced, with the specific pages identified
  • Rule 105: limiting instruction requested, drafted by counsel, at the moment of admission
  • 902 certification objections raised on notice, while cure is still possible
  • Foundation objections stated specifically enough to permit cure

Section 12 — During trial: the exhibit log

  • One row per exhibit: offered (date) · admitted / excluded / conditional · limiting instruction · condition met · published to the jury
  • Reconciled against the transcript at the end of each trial day
  • Conditionally admitted exhibits tracked — connection made, or move to strike
  • Exhibits offered but never ruled on identified
  • Exhibits admitted but never shown flagged
  • Limiting instructions listed for the final charge

Section 13 — The jury room set

  • Set agreed with opposing counsel before deliberations
  • Built only from admitted exhibits
  • Redactions in the version going back match the version admitted
  • Limiting instructions accompany the exhibits to which they apply
  • Verified item by item against the exhibit log by two people independently
  • Electronic access method, if any, agreed and controlled

Section 14 — The record and after

  • Every exhibit marked and filed — admitted, excluded, and marked for identification
  • Objections with grounds on the record
  • Offers of proof made for every excluded exhibit
  • Demonstratives preserved, including stills or files for animations
  • Sidebars on the record
  • Post-verdict: exhibit record filed or preserved per local rules
  • Team debrief, half a page: what mattered, what was never used, where foundation work was wasted or insufficient, what the log caught

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