Whenever appropriate, I make a point of asking good lawyers and judges for general courtroom observations.  This practice has made me a better lawyer over the years.  I intend to share many of those lessens learned on this blog.

Today I am going to focus on exhibit binders.  Traditionally, attorneys on both sides of a case have utilized exhibit binders to organize the documents of a case.  A lot of courtrooms in Virginia now have the technological capability to make exhibit binders obsolete (assuming the lawyer’s practice is keeping pace with technology, which is a topic for another blog post), but many courtrooms still are not high tech.

At a minimum, a lawyer should bring four sets of exhibit binders: one for the lawyer, one for opposing counsel, one for the judge, and one for the witness.  It is amazing how often lawyers only bring three sets, which means that the judge and the witness have to share an exhibit binder.  This will annoy the presiding judge and impede the flow of a lawyer’s presentation.

In contrast, if you have four sets and opposing counsel only brought three, you’re the one who just gained a slight advantage.