Templates
Trial exhibit list template
A trial exhibit list is the one page everybody reaches for when someone asks what Exhibit 004 is and whether it came in. It pairs each exhibit number with a short description, the source pages, the witness who will sponsor it, and space to record what happened when it was offered.
Use this template for the list you exchange with opposing counsel and file under the pretrial order, then keep the same file open at counsel table so the offered and admitted columns stay current. The rows below use the fictional Smith v. Jones matter that ships as the demo trial in Exhibit Room. Replace them with your own, and read how to number trial exhibits before you commit to the first column.
Trial exhibit list — Smith v. Jones, No. 25-CV-01187
| Exhibit No. | Description | Date | Bates range | Witness | Offered | Admitted | Objection | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | Residential construction contract, Smith and Jones Contracting | 2025-03-14 | SMITH000001-000012 | D. Smith | None | Signature page at 000012 | ||
| 002 | Change order No. 2, cabinetry and subfloor | 2025-05-02 | SMITH000013-000015 | R. Jones | None | Authenticity stipulated | ||
| 003 | Photograph, water damage below kitchen sink | 2025-08-11 | SMITH000101 | D. Smith | Foundation | Taken by plaintiff on her phone | ||
| 004 | Email chain, Smith to Jones, leak under sink | 2025-08-12 | JONES000440-000443 | R. Jones | Hearsay | Offered for notice | ||
| 005 | Invoice No. 4471, Jones Contracting | 2025-06-30 | JONES000512-000513 | M. Vela | None | Matches ledger line 14 | ||
| 006 | Payment ledger, March to August 2025 | 2025-08-31 | SMITH000210-000213 | D. Smith | Summary | Underlying records at 000214-000260 | ||
| 007 | Repair estimate, Cedar Ridge Restoration | 2025-09-05 | SMITH000301-000304 | K. Doyle | Qualification | Expert sponsor | ||
| 008 | Site inspection report with photographs | 2025-09-20 | SMITH000330-000341 | A. Pierce | None | Color pages 6-9 |
One row per exhibit, one PDF per row. Give the Description column room rather than abbreviating it: that sentence is what gets read aloud. Leave Offered and Admitted blank until each actually happens, then write the trial day or the transcript page instead of a check mark, so the row is still useful when you reconcile with the clerk. Delete the Objection column if your pretrial order asks for objections on a separate schedule.
How to fill it in
Start from the production set rather than from your outline. Pull the document, confirm the Bates range covers the whole exhibit, and only then give it a number. Working the other way around produces numbers with nothing behind them.
Write the description as a neutral noun phrase with a date: a contract, a photograph, an invoice. Save argument for the brief. Put the date of the document in the Date column, never the date you scanned it, and leave the cell empty when the document is undated rather than guessing.
The Witness column holds the sponsoring witness you plan to use first. If two witnesses could lay the foundation, note the second in the Notes column so you are not stuck when a witness order changes. Fill the Objection column only after the exchange, using the grounds opposing counsel actually served. When the list is stable, mirror it into the trial exhibit index so the paper and the PDFs stay findable.
Adapting it to your court
Courts differ, and so do individual judges within the same courthouse. Read the pretrial order, the local rules and any standing order before you lock the columns, and ask the courtroom deputy how the clerk prefers to receive the list.
Columns trial teams are often asked to add: a separate block for defense exhibits or joint exhibits; objection grounds with a rule citation; a stipulated-admissibility column; a date-admitted column the clerk fills in; a column cross-referencing the Bates number range to the deposition exhibit number the document already carried; and a confidentiality designation where a protective order applies.
None of these is universal, and this template does not try to guess which ones apply to you. Add what your order asks for, delete the rest, and keep the exhibit number in the first column so every version of the list sorts the same way.
Using it with Exhibit Room
The Offered and Admitted columns line up with the statuses in the app. Each exhibit carries one of Not offered, Offered, Admitted, Rejected or Illustrative, shown as text beside the exhibit rather than as a color alone, so the two records can be read side by side during a break. Exhibit status tracking explains how the statuses behave.
Keep the exhibit numbers in the spreadsheet and the numbers in the app identical, including leading zeros. Exhibit Room accepts custom schemes such as A, B, A-1 or P-12, so there is no reason to renumber anything to suit the software.
When the list is final, export the trial as a single .exhibitroom file and store it alongside the CSV, so the PDFs, annotations and the list travel together; see trial backup and transfer. Be clear about the limit: Exhibit Room does not generate or print this list. The spreadsheet stays the document you file, hand up and mark by hand.
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