Glossary
Exhibit list
Exhibit list
An exhibit list is the schedule of exhibits a party intends to use, one row per exhibit, identifying each by its number and a short description. It is normally exchanged with the other parties and often filed, on a date set by the pretrial order, and it is the document from which objections are served and rulings are tracked.
Three documents are easily confused. The exhibit list is the party's schedule. The clerk's exhibit log is the court's own record of what was marked and received, kept during the hearing. An internal exhibit index is the trial team's finding aid, mapping exhibits to binders, files and custodians. What a list must contain, whether it is filed, and whether a joint list is required vary by court and jurisdiction, so the column set below is a starting point rather than a standard.
Example
The plaintiff's list in Smith v. Jones ran to eight rows and nine columns: exhibit number, description, document date, Bates range, sponsoring witness, offered, admitted, objection and notes. Row five reads 005, Invoice No. 4471 Jones Contracting, 2025-06-30, JONES000512 to JONES000513, M. Vela, with the offered and admitted columns left blank until trial. The defense served objections on three rows, and those grounds were typed into the objection column before the list was filed.
Practical context
A list earns its keep when it is the only one. Two versions circulating by email, each with somebody's handwritten annotations, is the usual cause of a wrong document being handed to a witness.
Keep one working copy, freeze it at the exchange deadline, and record post-exchange events in the offered and admitted columns rather than by editing descriptions. Start from the trial exhibit list template, pair it with the exhibit admission tracker for the trial days themselves, and see how to organize trial exhibits for keeping files in step with the rows.
In Exhibit Room
Exhibit Room holds the same information as fields on each exhibit, number, name, description and status, and shows the set in the order you arrange it. In that sense the app carries the list, and its statuses mirror the offered and admitted columns.
It does not, however, produce the list. There is no printed or exported exhibit list in the app, so the spreadsheet stays the document you exchange and file. What the app does export is the trial itself, as a single .exhibitroom file containing the PDFs and annotations; see trial backup and transfer.
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