Document Tips For Trial Presentation
Preparing documents before loading them into trial software can cut down on prep time and avoid database or organizational headaches. You can work with whatever document format the client provides. These suggestions are meant to save time, labor, and conversion cost.
When delivering documents for trial presentation, send only the final exhibit version. It saves time and money. Make sure you know which formats your presentation software can use.
Document Formats
- Single-page TIFF for black-and-white pages, and JPEG for color pages (color TIFFs tend to run large or have compression issues). Provide these with a load file (.opt/.oll).
- JPEG is preferred by Trial Director over PNG, though PNG has its own format advantages and is also popular for other images used at trial.
- Multi-page TIFF should only be used for black-and-white documents.
- PDF works for both color and black-and-white documents.
Load names (the ObjId in the TD database) should be the exhibit numbers, with the correct number of leading zeros.
Naming and Leading Zeros
Name the exhibit file (or load name) after the exhibit number it corresponds to, with leading zeros sized to the total number of exhibits in the trial:
- Exhibit #1 as 01 if there are 99 exhibits or fewer
- Exhibit #1 as 001 if there are 999 exhibits or fewer
- Exhibit #1 as 0001 if there are 9,999 exhibits or fewer
Exhibit Number Overlap
Most courts prevent overlap by assigning number ranges to each party. If that’s not the case, add a prefix to the exhibit number (and file name):
- P for Plaintiff (e.g. P01, P001)
- D for Defense (e.g. D01, D001)
- J for Joint (e.g. J01, J001)
Endorsing Exhibits
Endorsing every exhibit and every page with its Exhibit#-Page# is a must. It saves time and confusion when navigating exhibits during trial. Make sure every binder contains the endorsed exhibits, too.
Editing the Trial Database (Removing Leading Zeros)
During presentation, fewer keystrokes to bring up an exhibit is the goal. The trial database can be edited to make this happen: in Trial Director, using the “ExNo” or “TrExNo” columns, exhibit/page “004-003” can be brought up as simply “4-3,” or just “4” for the first page. See our companion piece, Removing Leading Zeros For TrialDirector Using MS Access, for the step-by-step.