Building an exhibit binder

A binder is not a formality. It is what lets you say “Exhibit 4, page 2, the third message down” and have three other people find it in four seconds. Handing up a loose stack costs you time, patience and credibility at the exact moment you have least of all three.

How many copies

Assume four of everything:

1. The court’s. Handed to the clerk or the judge.
2. The other side’s. They are entitled to see what you are offering.
3. The witness’s. A copy that sits on the witness stand, so a witness can be asked to look at something without anyone passing paper around.
4. Yours. The one you keep, with your notes in it.

No rule fixes that number and courts differ — some want two, some want the exhibits filed in advance, some have a standing order about it. Ask the court coordinator. Four is the safe default when nobody has told you otherwise, and an extra copy has never once been a problem.

Numbering and marking

• Number them, do not letter them, unless your court says otherwise. Numbers are the common convention for a party’s exhibits in Texas civil practice.
• One number per document, not per page. A twelve-page bank statement is one exhibit with twelve pages.
• Number the pages within each exhibit in the bottom corner. This is what lets you direct someone to a specific line.
• Put the number on the first page of each exhibit, on a sticker or plainly written in the corner, on every copy.
• Number in the order you intend to use them, not in date order. You are building a sequence you will walk the judge through.
• Do not renumber the night before. If you must add one, make it the next number in the sequence.

Tabs and an index

Tab each exhibit so it can be opened at once. Then put a one-page index at the front listing the number, what the document is, and its date.

The index is for you as much as anyone. Under pressure, people forget what is in their own binder.

Redaction, and the part about minors

Redact the copies, then check the copies. Marking the original and photocopying it works; photocopying and then marking one set does not.

What to leave out

• Anything you have not read to the end. Handing up a document containing a line that damages you is a self-inflicted wound, and it happens constantly with long message threads.
• Duplicates. Three versions of the same screenshot make it look like you have padded the file.
• Anything you cannot say where it came from. If you cannot explain who made it and how you got it, it is unlikely to be admitted — see getting a document admitted.
• Recordings you made yourself, unless you have taken advice. There are rules about recording, and the risk is not worth guessing at.
• Volume for its own sake. Six documents that prove one thing beat sixty that gesture at everything.

Paper, and the device

Print your text messages. Do not plan to hand the judge your phone: courts vary on whether a phone comes into the building at all, a phone cannot be left with the clerk as an exhibit, and scrolling under pressure looks exactly as bad as it feels.

Print each thread with the sender, the recipient and the timestamps visible, in order, with nothing cut out of the middle. A thread that jumps from Tuesday to Friday invites the obvious question about what was said on Wednesday.

Bring the device anyway if security allows it, because being able to show the original if asked is useful. But the binder is what you hand up.

The night before

• Four copies, each complete, each in the same order
• Every exhibit numbered on its first page, on every copy
• Pages numbered within each exhibit
• Index at the front of each copy
• Sensitive data redacted — birth dates, home addresses, any minor’s name — on every copy
• Every document read to the end, including the parts you would rather skip
• Your one page of three points, on top, where you will see it