Glossary
Marked exhibit
Marked exhibit
An exhibit is marked when it has been given its identifier and that identifier has been noted in the record, usually by the courtroom clerk at trial or by the reporter at a deposition. The traditional phrase is marked for identification. Marking fixes what the item is so that the transcript, the rulings and the parties are all pointing at the same pages.
Marking decides nothing about admissibility. A marked exhibit may be offered and received, offered and refused, or never offered at all, and in each case the mark stays in the record as the name of the thing. Practice on when marking happens varies: many courts require exhibits to be pre-marked before trial under the pretrial order, while others mark them as each is used, and a physical sticker is still common in some courtrooms and entirely absent in others.
Example
On the first morning of the Smith v. Jones trial, all eight plaintiff exhibits were pre-marked 001 through 008 under the pretrial order. Exhibit 003, the photograph of water damage below the kitchen sink, was marked before any witness was called. When it was offered through Dana Smith at 11:02, the defense objected on authenticity and the objection was sustained. At that moment Exhibit 003 was a marked exhibit and nothing more: it existed in the record by number, but the jury could not consider it. It was re-offered at 11:48 after the foundation was cured.
Practical context
The gap between marked and admitted is where trial-day bookkeeping lives. A set that is pre-marked gives you a stable vocabulary from the opening statement onward, which is why counsel can say Exhibit 004 in a question before it has been received.
Keep a record of what has merely been marked and what has actually been received, because closing arguments and jury materials turn on the difference. A running sheet such as the exhibit admission tracker with one row per offer is the simplest way, and how to present exhibits in court puts it in sequence.
In Exhibit Room
Exhibit Room gives every exhibit the status Not offered until you change it, which is the working equivalent of marked but not yet offered. The statuses are Not offered, Offered, Admitted, Rejected and Illustrative, and each is shown as text beside the exhibit rather than as a color alone.
There is no separate marking step in the app and no exhibit sticker or label feature; numbering the exhibit is what identifies it on screen and in presentation mode. The official mark remains whatever the clerk or reporter records.
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