Amazingly simple but often overlooked, the California Evidence Code makes getting readily available evidence of call activity, purchase history, and navigation tracking into evidence as simple as taking a screenshot on your phone. Evidence Code section 1552 allows your client (or any witness) who is familiar with how the “computer” created the data to offer it without any additional foundation and without the need for an expert (per People v. Goldsmith). The next time you need to submit that ourfamilywizard log to show that a party never even checked the info base to get the school records or a screenshot of the “check in” on Facebook, include the screenshot in your client’s declarartion, establish the client’s familiarity with how the app works, and put your your client on the stand to testify and offer the screenshot.
Learn this and more tips on how to perform that perfect Direct Examination from the experts —
Judge Thomas Trent Lewis, Judge Amy Pellman, Stephen Kolodny and Anne Kiley at ACFLS Trial Tech Module Two (Los Angeles) on April 21, 2018 at Loyola Law School. Plus 30 minutes of technology training by Cari M. Pines and Kevin James Mooney.