In a state court case lasting several weeks, TrialPad was used to organize, manage, and present a voluminous amount of documentary evidence – and it performed flawlessly. The case had over 6,700 separate exhibits, and many were large multi-page documents, including several containing thousands of pages. At the pre-trial conference, the judge declared that he did not want any paper exhibits in boxes as the courtroom was small and space was at a premium.
TrialPad was first used to place exhibit stickers on all the documents, which were in PDF format and were named by exhibit number. Using the Exhibit Sticker tool, a custom sticker was created to the clerk’s specification, including the case number, plaintiff or defense designation, the exhibit number, a space where the clerk could record the date in lieu of a physical stamp, and the name of the Circuit Court Clerk. As documents were admitted and shown during the trial, they were marked as Admitted in TrialPad. At the end of each day, TrialPad’s Evidence Report tool was used to show which exhibits had been admitted into evidence that day, preserving the record.
Hundreds of exhibits were shown over the next few weeks, annotated on the fly, compared side by side, highlighted, with sections called out, all using TrialPad. The trial was a bench trial, and the outcome has yet to be determined – but the judge did make it clear that the technology behind the organization and presentation was a success.
Download TrialPad today, and be prepared for your next trial!