California Evidence 101
You know the code exists. You have never read it in the order a trial actually uses it. This is that reading, section by section, with the objection each one answers.
The membership
The whole library, on one password.
Four courses, sixteen hours of MCLE credit, the reference material you will actually reach for in the middle of a trial, and every lesson recorded after you join. Start anywhere. Finish in any order.
Taught by David Sugden, a trial lawyer at Call & Jensen in Newport Beach. Recorded between trials, not instead of them.
Membership
$99a month
- All four courses and all sixteen credits
- All 257 library sheets, and every video as it goes up
- Cancel anytime, from your account
30-day money-back guarantee. If it is not useful in the first month, tell us and we refund it.
4 courses
16 hours of MCLE credit
On demand · self-paced
30 days money back
No contract · cancel anytime
What is inside
Four problems, four courses.
Each one is built around a problem you already have. All four are included, from the day you join, in either plan.
Deposition Skills Clinic
A deposition is not discovery. It is the record you will read to the jury. Preparation, outlining, business records, and the admissions you need before you sit down.
Expert Witness Academy
Most expert crosses fail on foundation, not on facts. Gatekeeping, hypotheticals, the reliability challenge, and the impeachment that holds up.
Business Trial Academy
The transition from litigating a case to trying one. Three hundred sixty-five days out, ninety days out, thirty days out, and then verdict.
Any single course can also be bought on its own for $499, once. Four of them at that price is $1,996; a year of the membership is $990.
The member library
The part you use on a Tuesday.
Courses are for the month before trial. The library is for the morning of. Two hundred and fifty-seven quick bites, each a two-page sheet that answers one question, searchable by code section and built to print. Included in both plans.
Two hundred and fifty-seven sheets
Six libraries: evidence and hearsay, depositions, experts, trial skills, the war room, and jury selection. Thirty-eight modules, and every one of them finished.
Written for the moment
The rule both ways, California and federal, what to say, what the judge asks next, and the traps that cost you the point. Front and back of one page.
Found by section
Type 352, or 2034.300, or Sargon, and the sheet comes up. The search reads the citation line on every sheet, not only the title.
The videos as they go up
Every sheet gets its video, shot and posted sheet by sheet. Nothing extra to buy, and nothing to wait for before the sheet is useful.
See the whole index, or read a free sheet on what foundation actually means.
Price
Two ways to pay. The same membership.
No tiers, no upsell, nothing held back for a higher plan. The only difference between these is how often you are billed.
Monthly
$99a month
Billed monthly. Cancel from your account and you keep access until the end of the period you have paid for.
Join monthlyAnnual · two months free
$990a year
$82.50 a month, billed once. That is $198 less than paying monthly for the same twelve months.
Join annually- All four courses, from the first day
- Sixteen hours of MCLE credit
- All 257 library sheets, and every video as it goes up
- 30-day money-back guarantee, either plan
- A single course on its own is $499, once
- Firm and team access, ask us
30days
Thirty days, and your money back.
Join, watch as much as you want, and if it has not been worth it, write to us inside the first thirty days and we refund what you paid. You do not have to explain why, and you do not have to argue about it. It applies to both plans.
Fit
This is not for everyone.
The fastest way to be sure is to read the right-hand column first.
Join if
- You have cases that could go to verdict and you want to be ready for the ones that do
- You know the rules well enough to pass the bar and not well enough to run an objection at speed
- You are taking depositions that someone will read to a jury one day
- You need MCLE credit and would rather earn it on something you will use
- You want a straight answer from someone who tried a case this year
Do not join if
- You want the cheapest possible MCLE compliance and nothing more
- You are looking for practice-area substance rather than trial craft; this is about how to try a case, not about any one field of law
- You need a course that is jurisdiction-specific outside California; the evidence course is built on the California Evidence Code
- You want live coaching on your own case — that is a different conversation
From members
Lawyers who have already done this.
“I love your videos. I have been an attorney for 45 years and have won numerous multi-million dollar judgments, including a judgment a couple of months ago for 58 million dollars. I feel like I am learning so much from watching these videos.”
Nathan Goldberg · Allred, Maroko & Goldberg · Los Angeles
“After 22 years in the trenches as a litigator, I was impressed by how much I learned from David Sugden’s Evidence 101 and Deposition Skills Clinic … focused on the evidence concepts attorneys need to recall and apply immediately during depositions and at trial.”
Stewart Albertson · Albertson & Davidson · Carlsbad
“Business Trial Academy was so amazing. I couldn’t even express it fully, because I don’t think words could encapsulate the relief, clarity, and confidence I obtained from this class.”
Aric Williams · Law Offices of Aric N. Williams · Carlsbad
“What I like about Evidence at Trial, and David Sugden’s approach, is his focus on building a community of lawyers that are really striving to get to that next level.”
Shirin Forootan · Forootan Law Corp · Corona del Mar
“David is a fantastic and inspiring speaker. The Business Trial Academy delivers a great combination of big-picture theory, real examples, and useful trial techniques. I would highly recommend it.”
Christopher Kim · Los Angeles Dependency Lawyers · Los Angeles
“I’ve attended Mr. Sugden’s MCLE course in the past, and I recommend his course to any attorney seeking to acquire or sharpen their trial skills.”
Colleen M. Pratt · Pratt Law Corporation · Long Beach
Who teaches it
David Sugden
A trial lawyer and shareholder at Call & Jensen in Newport Beach, trying high-stakes cases to verdict for plaintiffs and for defendants. Every course on this site was recorded between trials, which is the only reason any of it is worth $99.
The material is not a survey of what the law says. It is what he does, in the order he does it, including the parts that are usually left out of a CLE because they are hard to defend on a slide.
- PracticeBusiness, employment, trade secret and intellectual property trials, nationally
- BarAdmitted in California, New York, and Texas
- FellowshipMember, American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA)
- RecognitionTop 50 Super Lawyers in Orange County
- 2025Two complete defense verdicts and an $8.7 million plaintiff’s verdict
- BooksPicked to Win (2026)
Questions
The things people ask before joining.
How do I get access?
Immediately. As soon as you join you have on-demand access to all four courses and to the member library, from any browser, on your own schedule.
Can I earn MCLE credit?
Yes. Each of the four courses is eligible for credit, four hours each, sixteen hours in total.
Evidence at Trial is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider #19358.
Do I have to take them in order?
No. Start with whichever one matches the case in front of you. Most people start with Evidence 101 or with the Deposition Skills Clinic, and the Business Trial Academy tends to be the one they come back to when a trial date is real.
What if I want to cancel?
Cancel anytime, from your own account, without writing to anybody. You keep access until the end of the period you have already paid for.
What if it is not useful?
Tell us inside the first thirty days and we refund what you paid, on either plan, without asking you to justify it.
How long do I keep access to a course?
For as long as your membership is active. Nothing expires while you are a member, and material added after you join is included.
Is the book included?
No. Picked to Win is sold on its own, on Amazon, and the first chapter is free to read. It covers jury selection, which none of the four courses does.
Can my firm buy seats for the whole team?
Yes. Write to us with how many lawyers and we will sort it out directly rather than making you click through this page four times.
Is this only useful in California?
Evidence 101 is built on the California Evidence Code, so that one is Californian by design. Depositions, experts, and the run-up to a business trial are craft rather than jurisdiction, and members outside California use them.
Join
Thirty days to find out.
Four courses, sixteen credits, and the library, for $99. If it is not worth it, you have a month to say so and get your money back.
Not ready? The three free resources cost nothing and take an afternoon.
