Trial Evidence Committee

Mission

The Trial Evidence Committee, which monitors developments in the law of evidence, is comprised of more than 1,300 individuals. The Committee produces a quarterly newsletter which typically includes articles on various evidence issues, surveys of national and regional developments in the law of evidence, and updates on significant state and federal evidence cases. Throughout the year, the Committee sponsors and/or co-sponsors programs at national and regional ABA meetings. Members review a wide variety of evidentiary issues and may work on various subcommittees and publications which deal with issues such as expert witnesses, highly technical evidence, electronic evidence, legislation, ethics, privileges, and other issues raised under the Federal Rules of Evidence and their state counterparts.

If you are a trial attorney, especially a new or young trial attorney, the Trial Evidence Committee of the ABA Section of Litigation can offer tremendous benefits to you. The Trial Evidence Committee addresses fundamental as well as cutting edge evidentiary issues that affect each of us in our practice, and it offers valuable tools for us as trial attorneys. Membership in the Trial Evidence Committee is free with your membership in the Section of Litigation.

Announcements

Join Us for a Call with the Hon. J. Michelle Childs

Please join the cochairs of the Business Torts Litigation and Trial Evidence Committees for a 30-minute teleconference with the Hon. J. Michelle Childs of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina on Tuesday, May 15, 2012, at 1:00 p.m. EST.

Judge Childs was appointed to the federal bench in 2010 after holding a South Carolina circuit judge position for several years. She comes with many high honors and currently serves as cochair of the ABA Section of Litigation’s Trial Evidence Committee. She is also a good friend of the Business Torts Litigation Committee. During the call, Judge Childs will give us the top three mistakes she sees attorneys make in business-tort matters and, if time allows, she will answer members’ questions.

As time is precious, the cochairs of the committees request questions be sent the week before the call so that they can be presented to Judge Childs in the most effective manner. To that end, if you have a question you’d like Judge Child to address, please forward it to either Laura McLaughlin at Laura.McLaughlin@logan.edu or Kent Lambert at klambert@bakerdonelson.com by May 9. This should be very informative and, knowing Judge Michelle, probably also entertaining.

Hope you can join us!

The phone number for the call is 866-646-6488. The passcode is 996-815-9017.

Seeking Contributors

The Trial Evidence Committee is looking for authors for articles about trial evidence and related matters. Contact an editor (below) for more information.

Seeking Program Ideas

Do you have a great idea for a program? The Trial Evidence Committee is currently seeking ideas for programs for the Annual Meeting. Please contact one of the committee chairs listed below if you have an idea.

Message from the Chairs

The chairs of the Trial Evidence Committee extend warm greetings to you in the New Year! We are excited about the projects and programs undertaken by the committee during this bar year. We continue to receive stellar reviews for our newsletter and look forward to presenting three programs on trial skills at the Section Annual Conference to be held April 18–20, 2012, at the JW Marriott in Washington, D.C.

The committee has continued some of the initiatives that we began in the new bar year, including a new-lawyer-mentoring program, quarterly “all-hands” calls with discussions on hot evidentiary and trial topics, and a renewed effort to bring young and diverse talent into leadership roles on our committee.

Please let us know of your interest in an editorial position or other leadership role within the committee. We are also looking for program proposals for the Annual Meeting in Chicago in August 2012 and content for our web page and newsletters. If you’d like to write about a new case, have an idea for a program or project, would like to interview a judge about his or her pet peeves or war stories, or would just like to get more involved, please contact David or Kent and plan to join in our next scheduled committee-wide call on January 10, 2012, at 4:00 p.m. EST. The call-in number is 866-646-6488 and the pass code is 3869549284.

David Wolfsohn
Kent Lambert
Hon. J. Michelle Childs
Chairs, Trial Evidence Committee