[blindLaw] Working With Witness Interacting With An Exhibit

[rodalcidonis at gmail.com]

We can brainstorm if you need to but at first glance, I will have pre-arranged with the Audio/visual operator to stop on certain time stamps. I would give them a list of those time stamps and ask them to stop at each one. You may want to bring this to the judge's attention. And then, you note in your file what each time stamp shows. The operator would be asked to tell me, stop at 5:21:33. Then, with that info, you would proceed with your question based on the time stamp.

Best to have sighted assistance to visually affirmed that the video is in-fact on the screen and it is stopped at that time stamp.

Without full confirmation that the video is in-fact on the screen and that it is showing what you want to base your questions on, I would not be comfortable asking the witness any questions.

This requires some prep on your part, and possibly as part of witness prepping.

These were some of the tricks I used when I tried personal injury cases. But I always had sighted assistance with me though.


Rod,











-----Original Message-----
From: BlindLaw <blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Lauren Bishop via BlindLaw
Sent: Wednesday, July 2, 2025 9:07 PM
To: Seif-Eldeen Saqallah <seifs at umich.edu>
Cc: Lauren Bishop <laurenbishop96 at icloud.com>; Blind Law Mailing List <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [blindLaw] Working With Witness Interacting With An Exhibit

The video does not have sound. It is a fight between two people that ends up becoming a fight with a lot of people, so I’m having victims identify themselves in the video for the judge because it’s hard to see what’s going on and who’s who.
Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 2, 2025, at 12:56 PM, Seif-Eldeen Saqallah <seifs at umich.edu> wrote:
> 
> 
>> what kind of case/does the video have audio, or is it simply footage? witness is it? If an officer, perhaps have the officer narrated what actions he/she took in the video; if a regular witness, perhaps consider doing the same or asking the witness what is happening on the video? It differs by style and via attorney. I’ve also seen attorneys play the video twice: once silently without narration, the other time asking the witness to marry. I have not seen another attorney ask questions of the witness before, though I have seen an attorney previously watched the video, know the actions occurring in the footage, and then asking specific questions based on that(sometimes even referencing time minutes/2nd mark markers) parentheses. That also might be a good idea, as more observations of the evidence goes into the record, rather than the record simply saying video was played. Happy to hear other thoughts.
>> 
>> Sincerely,
>> Seif
>> P. S. Please ignore dictation errors.
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