At the Birmingham Bar Membership Forum on March 8, 2019, Rebecca Beers moderated a panel about preparing for and using digital evidence in the courtroom. Questions considered during the discussion included:

• What types of digital evidence is available and when is it useful to your case?
• What should counsel be doing during discovery to facilitate using digital evidence at trial?
• What sorts of agreements should counsel reach pre-trial regarding producing and using digital evidence? How should counsel use this evidence at trial to make sure it sticks with the jury and in the Court’s record?
• When do you need a back-up plan?

The panel reviewed digital evidence such as social media, text messages and other electronic evidence, including how to search for and obtain this type of evidence. They also covered the use of digital animations, reconstructions and video deposition. Judges on the panel offered insight to authentication and admissibility issues related to this evidence, as well as how to have it preserved in the court’s record and reviewed and relied upon by the jury.

Panel members included Will Axon (Starnes Davis Florie LLP), Judge Abdul Kallon (U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama), Judge J. Javan Patton (10th Judicial Circuit Court, Civil Division), and Jacqueline O. Morrette (The Morrette Firm, LLC).