Take it if
- You object by instinct and would rather object by rule
- You have argued a motion in limine and felt the ground move
- You are building a record someone will read back to you later
- You want the four hours of credit on something you will use
Course 03 · 4 MCLE credits
Expert Witness Academy
Most expert crosses fail on foundation, not on facts. This is designation to verdict: the declaration, the deposition that separates an opinion from its basis, the admissibility fight, and the cross that survives a redirect.
Five sessions, self-paced, on demand. Taught by David Sugden, a trial lawyer at Call & Jensen in Newport Beach.
All four courses
$99a month
- This course, and the other three
- Sixteen MCLE credits in total
- The member library, and everything added to it
Just this course — $499, once. Yours to keep.
Buy this course →
30-day money-back guarantee, either way.
4 modules
4 MCLE credits
On demand · self-paced
$499 once, or included in the membership
30 days money back
What it is
The code, in the order the trial uses it.
Every litigator has the Evidence Code within reach and almost none of us have read it through. We learn it in fragments, one objection at a time, usually while the fragment is being overruled. This course reads it properly, division by division, and puts each part next to the moment in a trial when it matters.
It is not a survey and it is not a code commentary. The organizing question throughout is the practical one: what does the judge need before this comes in, and what do you say when it is your turn.
It is Californian
- The course is built on the California Evidence Code, not the Federal Rules
- The reasoning carries across; the section numbers do not
- If you practice outside California, the other three courses travel better
The curriculum
Six sessions, in order.
Watch them in any order you like, but they are built to be taken in this one.
01
Evidence, competency, and the adverse party
- The difference between great facts and great evidence
- Knowing the rules of evidence in a deposition
- The rule of witness competency
- Personal knowledge, and establishing its foundation
- The adverse party deposition, and its timing
- Using depositions for document discovery
- Preparing timelines for deposition and trial
CasesUnited States v. Microsoft (deposition of Bill Gates)
02
Admissions, work product, and authentication
- Discovering information versus securing admissions
- Why dropping assumptions leads to effective questioning
- Using jury instructions to prepare
- Initial questions, and difficult opposing counsel
- Discoverability of documents reviewed
- The attorney work product doctrine
- The non-privilege to refuse to be a witness, Evid. Code § 911
- The best method for authenticating documents
- What failing to authenticate costs you at trial
CasesRufo v. Simpson · Kerns Construction v. Superior Court · Sullivan v. Superior Court · Estate of Gay v. Thicke
03
Must-gets, corporate witnesses, and privilege
- Deposition “must gets”, and getting commitments from the witness
- The importance of stipulations
- Preparing for corporate entity depositions
- The duties of the corporate witness representative
- Questions that establish a witness’s qualifications
- Confidential communications, and the discoverable foundations of the privilege
- The attorney-client privilege for a corporate party, Evid. Code §§ 950–962
- The factors that determine waiver
CasesMaldonado v. Superior Court · Zurich v. Superior Court · D.I. Chadbourne v. Superior Court · Snider v. Superior Court · O’Mary v. Mitsubishi · W.T. Grant v. Superior Court
04
Third parties, friendly witnesses, and objections
- Third party depositions
- Strategies for the friendly witness
- Direct examination strategies and outlines
- How to lead without leading
- Transitions, and objections at depositions
- Foundation objections and the scope of discovery
- Breaks in the chain — personal knowledge and authentication
CasesSecurity National Bank v. Abbott Laboratories · Rifkind v. Superior Court
05
Relevance, privacy, and preparing a witness
- The relevance objection, in disguise
- The evidence analytical framework
- Exclusions and limitations
- Putting privileged communications at issue
- Rules of exclusion — discovery versus admissibility
- Privacy against the right to discovery
- Deposition 101 letters
- How to prepare witnesses for depositions
CasesStewart v. Colonial Western Agency · the Lance Armstrong deposition · the Brett Kavanaugh testimony
06
Hearsay, character, and expert depositions
- The working rule of hearsay, and its exceptions
- The business records exception
- Refreshed recollection against recorded recollection
- Habit against character evidence
- Preparing for expert depositions
- The admissibility spectrum for expert opinion
- The sources that can support an opinion
- Asking questions for general acceptance
Four hours of MCLE credit on completion. State Bar of California approved MCLE provider #19358. Self-paced, on any device, and yours to keep.
Or all four
Two courses cost more than all four.
If you are likely to want a second one, the membership is already cheaper than buying two, and it does not stop at four.
This course, and one more
$998
Two of the four, bought once each. Eight MCLE credits.
versus
A year of the membership
$990
All four courses, sixteen credits, the member library, and everything added while you are a member.
The other three
What comes after the code.
Deposition Skills Clinic
A deposition is not discovery. It is the record you will read to the jury. Six sessions.
See the course →Expert Witness Academy
Designation, the deposition, Daubert and Sargon, and the cross that survives a redirect. Five sessions.
See the course →Business Trial Academy
The transition from litigating a case to trying one, from voir dire to the close. Five modules.
See the course →Start
Four hours, and the code stops being a lookup.
Thirty days to decide it was worth it, whichever way you buy it.
Not ready? The three free resources cost nothing and take an afternoon.
