Sky Writing

Writeboard is a very cool application that allows joint work on documents.

The Audacity of Presenting Recorded Statements at Trial

I recently read about a program that dramatically improves the ease of presenting recorded statements: Audacity (available for both Mac and PC at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/). All you need is a digital recording of the witness's original statement and some basic knowledge about how to cut and paste on a computer. Once you install the program, you'll see a screen that looks something like this:

The program is pretty easy to use, and they've got full documentation on their site. Once you learn how to use it, you can do some amazing things with audio statements. For example, here are some of the different ways you can use this program:

Redacting an audio statement to remove irrelevant sections. No longer do you have to worry about the jury hearing irrelevant, suppressed, or improper comments. Simply highlight the improper comment and click . Presto! The statement will be removed, and you can now save the file as a new audio recording.

Extracting admissions from longer statements. Let's say you don't want to replay the entire witness statement, but only want to replay a small snippet. Audacity makes it easy to extract those admissions from extended audio recordings. Here's all you'd need to do:

1. Go to and click .
2. Choose the audio recording you want to import.
3. Use the selection tool to highlight the audio segment you want to export. (It's almost the same as highlighting a paragraph in Word and clicking "Copy")
4. Click and scroll down to
5. Choose a filename for your recording. (It's easier to retrieve the correct statement during trial if you use descriptive titles for each file, such as "The Light was Red" or "The Light was Green").
6. Click "SAVE"

That's it! Now you have a standalone .WAV file of the admission that you can play on any computer. Be creative and think of how you could use those admissions. Could you use them during settlement negotiations by burning a "Greatest Hits" CD for your opponent? ("Here are the six times during depositions where C.E.O. admits to liability.") Or import the statements to your iTunes playlist, so you can quickly click on the correct statement to impeach witnesses during cross-examination?

Maybe you want to use the statements during closing to compare and contrast what different witnesses said about the same events: "What was their understanding of the performance metrics for promotions? Let's hear what the CEO, Jon Smith, had to say [PLAY CLIP #1]. But the CFO, Jane Smith, said something entirely different [PLAY CLIP #2]."

Statements of party opponents, especially recorded ones, can be some of the most powerful evidence you'll ever admit. But just as with every other exhibit or testimony that you'll ever offer into evidence, it's not enough to simply understand what you should show to the jury. To get the most out of your evidence, you'll also need to master knowing when you should admit it and how you should publish it. Learn how to use an audio editing program like Audacity to extract your admissions, and you'll be able to play them to maximum effect for your jury.

E-Discovery and Special Masters

If you want to see the future of e-discovery, read Special Masters and E-Discovery: The Intersection of Two Recent Revisions to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, by the Honorable Shira A. Scheindlin & Jonathan M. Redgrave in 30 Cardozo L. R. 347 (2008).