I’m Dean Athanasopoulos and I’ve been a Litigation Support Specialist for 19 years with the DOJ’s USAO. Over this three-part series, I am discussing trial presentation tips I’ve learned about presenting evidence at trial and other tips for success. Part one was published Monday and part two was published Wednesday, here is the third and final part.

Jury Evidence Recording System (JERS)

Some courtrooms use the JERS system. It allows the jury to see all admitted exhibits electronically on a giant touchscreen in the jury deliberation room. The logistics are that you give your exhibits to the courtroom clerk before trial, and after they are admitted into evidence, they will become available to the jury.

You must do a couple of important things when dealing with JERS. Check whether your video/audio exhibits are compatible; if not, you must format them. In my experience with this system, most courtroom clerks will demand that you submit your exhibits early. The clerks want ample time to load each exhibit. However, our exhibits list is usually only 100% complete a day before trial. The compromise that works is to provide 80% of your exhibits a week before and explain that you might have a few more once the trial starts. This way, the courtroom clerk will feel more relaxed when uploading exhibits.

Respect court staff

Keeping a good relationship with the court means staying in good graces with all their staff. You are in their “house” and must abide by their rules when on trial. This starts with the courthouse guards. The guards are the gatekeepers and can make your life difficult if you are challenging. In my younger twenties, I hurried to the courtroom to update the trial laptop. I came off as rude to the guards, and they took their time getting me through security. Since then, I have treated those guards with the utmost respect, so in the future, I can have less friction when getting into the courthouse.

The same goes with the courtroom clerk and court IT staff. They do not work for you, so treat them nicely. If the courtroom is wired, that means the clerk controls the technology. Make sure you communicate early with the clerk about using the court tech. Let them know if you need the lights lowered for particular videos or the higher volume for audio with low talkers. As for court IT staff, they are only responsible for the tech in the courtroom and not your technical issues. However, if you are nice to them, they will help you out in a pinch. So, kill them all with kindness to get a favor because it’s your presentation, not theirs.

Witness Organization and Management

Even though I’m a technologist, a reasonable attorney will ask me for a non-lawyer perspective. I use my non-lawyer perspective to help with witness presentation as well. One thing I would like to suggest is that witness order is significant. Knowing how long a witness will be can better organize everything you want to do in the trial. You want to manage your witnesses in a way that makes sense. You are telling your narrative, so make sure you put your characters of the story in the right place.  As I said, you don’t want to create distance between your significant points. You always want to end the day on a high note. You want the jury to go home with the freshest memory of your points. So, put your most compelling witnesses late in the afternoon and less intriguing ones (usually the ones used for simple authentication) earlier in the day.

The best tactic I’ve seen for dealing with opposing character witnesses is to keep it short. Cameron McBride is one of the best trial attorneys I’ve ever worked with. I once watched her masterfully defeat a defendant’s witness, who was his mother. In her cross-examination, all she did was ask the mother two questions, “Do you love your son” and “would you do anything for him?”. The witness answered yes to both questions, and Cameron immediately ended with “no further questions”. That enabled the jury to question the credibility of the mother as a dependable witness.

Conclusion

I hope this helps you in your future trials. In the end, trial presentation is a war of narratives. Be prepared, don’t be too flashy, respect everyone, and present in a way the everyday person can understand.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by my employer, my partners or my clients. eDiscovery Today is made available solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Today should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.