Evidence Preparation

Evidence Preparation is the work of turning raw materials (documents, photos, videos, texts, emails, repair requests, payment records, police reports, medical notes) into a coherent, court-ready record. The task includes collecting and verifying sources; extracting dates, parties, and context; creating a chronological timeline; and labeling each item with consistent filenames, exhibit numbers, and short descriptions. It also involves checking relevance, authenticity, and privilege; redacting sensitive information; and ensuring materials comply with local rules of evidence and formatting (e.g., PDFs, page limits, exhibit separators, declarations).

Teams commonly produce an “evidence pack” that ties each exhibit to specific claims or defenses, with citations back to declarations, pleadings, or statutes. Good practice includes a fact matrix mapping issues to proof, a chain-of-custody note where needed, and accessibility checks (legible scans, translations, alt text for images where required). AI can help by deduplicating files, extracting metadata, building timelines, suggesting exhibit labels, and generating draft summaries—but attorneys and navigators remain responsible for accuracy, confidentiality, and final relevance judgments.