Objection Tactics: The Litigator’s Roadmap to Effective Evidence Challenges - Robert J. Foster

Every trial has four realities: what happened, what the plaintiff says happened, what the defendant says happened, and what the jury decides happened. The Rules of Evidence play a major role in determining what a jury decides happens. This seminar will focus on recognizing potential evidentiary issues during the discovery phase and identifying strategies to anticipate and avoid evidentiary issues in motions and at trial. The seminar will then discuss the appropriate methods to raise, counter, and preserve objections to evidentiary issues at trial.

Key topics:

• Most common evidentiary issues at trial
• Common mistakes during discovery that create evidentiary problems
• Resolving difficult authentication issues
• Proper use of motions in limine
• Making a proper objection
• Preserving evidentiary objections for appeal

Ethical Considerations in Litigation Strategy – Arthur D. Burger and Caroline Y. Lee-Ghosal

A litigator’s strategy in connection with discovery and evidentiary issues for trial often revolves around the applicable procedural rules and rules of evidence. However, the litigator who fails to give due regard in their strategy to the potential impact of the ethical rules does so at their peril. Ethical rules and considerations play a major role in shaping and determining what evidence may be obtained during discovery and ultimately presented at trial. This seminar will focus on identifying potential ethical hazards associated with evidentiary issues and discuss how to prepare for and/or address these issues when they arise in discovery and at trial.

Key topics:

• Ensuring compliance with discovery obligations and confronting spoliation issues
• Protecting privileged communications, including handling inadvertent production of privileged material
• Ethical considerations in witness preparation
• Handling concerns regarding potentially false testimony or fraudulent documents
• Prohibition on lawyers asserting personal views