Like most attorneys, should your matter be deep into the litigation cycles, we depend upon our clients to provide us evidence we can use in either prosecuting or defending your matter.
Let me say Thank You to those who really work on providing the documents and data requested by the attorney and not save this effort until the last second.
What is behind the curtain is that the attorney, and their staff must take the documents or photos or whatever and place them in a form that the court can use, and the attorney can use in trial, hearing or exchange with opposing party/counsel.
So here are some guidelines on assisting your attorney in evidence. Remember, the more you stick to the guidelines, the less time that your attorney will have to bill you to format the evidence into a court acceptable fashion.
Here are several points:
- If your attorney cannot understand what this document means or how it is important, or in the case of a photograph what you are trying to show, neither can the Court.
- Do not mark up anything you send your attorney. Granted, help in the form of point 1 is very appreciated, but the evidence cannot be considered an authentic duplicate, if your writing is all over it. Instead, describe what you have sent, and send a note to the attorney describing the who, what, when and how this is authentic (aka I took the photo, I drafted this document, this is from my email, or I received this from the opposing party)
- Do not use your cell phone to take pictures of a document or a photo. Attorneys cannot authenticate the document or photo because you have intervened as the taker of the taker, or copier of the writer. We need the original person who took the photo, drafted the document, email or the like. Cell phones take horrible document photos and most attorneys office spend countless hours trying to make the photo of a photo into acceptable evidence. The best way, is use a flat bed scanner and scan (IN COLOR) what ever it is that you wanted to take a cell phone picture and send it to the attorney with its description.
- Don’t be the filter. If you are in doubt if the document has any relationship to the matter, send it to the attorney with a note saying so. The last thing your attorney wants to hear before trial is “oh yeah, I had that but decided it wasn’t important to send you.” Let the attorney make the decision of what is necessary or not. After all that is what you pay them for.
Following these guidelines should assist your attorney in assisting your case and keeping costs down.
Call Sprigg-Novak Law
Should you need attorney advice on a matter, Sprigg-Novak Law Firm is here for you. Call 214-216-1667 to set up a consultation.
