Impeachment Evidence in Personal Injury: Overcoming Admissibility Issues with Surveillance, Social Media, and More
Course Details
- smart_display Format
On-Demand
- signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level
- work Practice Area
Personal Injury and Med Mal
- event Date
Tuesday, July 2, 2019
- schedule Time
1:00 PM E.T.
- timer Program Length
90 minutes
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This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.
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This CLE course will discuss best practices for counsel to use impeachment evidence at a personal injury trial. In situations where a potential piece of evidence is irrelevant until the trial is underway, attorneys must be confident about bringing evidence before the judge while minimizing its chances of exclusion.
Most state and federal rules of civil procedure only require attorneys to disclose items in discovery that are deemed relevant to the case. Thus, seemingly irrelevant material (for example surveillance or social media posts that appear unrelated to the trial issues), may suddenly become material evidence due to unexpected testimony at a hearing.
In those instances, if counsel discovers that material previously deemed irrelevant has new relevance as “impeachment evidence” in the case, then attorneys risk exclusion of the item and may be seen as trying to ambush their opponent by the trial judge.
Also, issues surrounding authentication and judicial discretion come into play, which may pose threats to the admissibility of potential impeachment evidence. Because of this, attorneys must be very thorough throughout the entire litigation process and anticipate the possible objections and means of overcoming them well in advance of any trial so that any necessary witnesses may be present at short notice to lay a foundation.
Listen as our distinguished panel discusses best practices for anticipating potential pieces of impeachment evidence before trial and how to best posture the evidence to overcome any objections or admissibility issues.
- Using the rules of evidence to get the "good stuff" into evidence, and exclude or effectively deal with the "bad stuff"
- Discussion on how to use focus groups to decide what evidence you need and how to use it to win
- Tips on using evidence to prove proximate cause
- Admitting evidence at trial
- Using medical evidence from treating doctors at trial
- Discussion of social media evidence, including its dangers
- Effective use of evidence in vehicular cases
- Evidentiary tips for cases involving municipal defendants
The panel will review these and other relevant topics:
- What do the federal rules say concerning using previously undisclosed evidence at trial?
- What are common types of impeachment evidence that become relevant at trial?
- What are the typical admissibility issues that attorneys face when requesting admission of impeachment evidence?
- What are the best practices for counsel to posture impeachment evidence for admission at trial?
