How to Avoid Surprise Setbacks at Trial

Have you ever been involved in a trial at court and had some new evidence or witness appear that you didn’t know about? Since there is a mandate procedure to follow by everyone, there should be no surprises at court, but if there are it could be because you are not prepared. Here are a few hints on how to be prepared so that you won’t suffer any setbacks from what you believe were surprises at trial.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• List of evidence and witnesses

1. Get legal advice. Go to the court office and get the name and number of the legal service that provides a few minutes of free legal advice and find out all you can on how to present your case and where to get information to present your case properly. (See eHow Article, How to Represent Yourself in Small Claims Court.)
2. Get a copy of the court information booklet that explains all the court procedures to litigants including presenting evidence, witnesses and exchanging documents. (See eHow Article, How to Prepare Evidence fFor Court.)
3. Keep in a file all the information given to you by the other party and by the court. Don’t disregard anything or assume that any one of these is of no value.
4. Keep all your evidence in chronological order in a file; that includes any added evidence that you acquire and any evidence that is given to you by the other party.
5. Make sure you give copies of all of your evidence to the court and to the other party.
6. Respond to any phone calls or letter requests from the other party so that you know you are both on the same page.
7. Make yourself available for any motions or adjournment requests from the other party.
8. Make sure you keep a list of all your witnesses and that you get a list of all the other party’s witnesses. Then, do some research so you know how each one is involved with your claim and what evidence they will present, and what questions you will ask them at trial. This will allow you to know what witnesses will be giving testimony for both sides during the trial.
9. Keep your phone number, fax number, E-mail address and physical address available to the other party so that there will be an open communication between you and you know what each is doing at all times.

Tips & Warnings

• If after all this the other party springs new evidence or a new witness on the court, you can object to it because you can say that you kept records of everything concerning this case and that you were never given this in advance according to the rules. You can object to any new evidence being submitted or you can request an adjournment of the trial to give you time to study this new information and get your own supporting evidence prepared regarding it.