Use cases
Short hearings, small sets, no time to fumble
A motion hearing is the opposite of a trial in almost every dimension that matters here. There is no jury. The audience is one judge who has read some of your papers and is watching the clock, and there may be four other matters stacked behind yours. You have perhaps fifteen minutes and perhaps six documents, four of which you will not open.
That compression changes the job. Nobody is impressed by a well-built set; they only notice a badly built one. What you need is the ability to have a specific paragraph of a specific declaration on screen within a few seconds of the judge asking about it, and then to get back to your argument without a detour.
Preparing a hearing set
Build a trial in Exhibit Room even though it is not a trial; the container is the same and the case details keep it findable later. Import only the documents in play on this motion. A hearing set that contains the whole production is a hearing set you will get lost in; the habits on exhibit organization still apply, just at a smaller scale.
Number them for the motion, not the case: 1 through 6, or by their designation in the papers, so that when the court says "Exhibit C to the Rivera declaration" you are not translating. Put the paragraph or page number you intend to quote into each exhibit's description, and mark that passage with a highlight or a box in advance. Preparation for a hearing is mostly a question of deleting things.
Workflow in Exhibit Room
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Make a trial named for the motion
Something like "Alvarez, MSJ hearing, 12 Oct". You will have several of these per matter and the name is what tells them apart.
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Import only the documents the motion turns on
Drag in that handful of PDFs. Resist the urge to bring everything else along in case it comes up.
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Mark the exact passage you will quote
One highlight or rectangle per document, on the one page you actually intend to read. The judge should see the sentence, not the page.
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Set your default zoom to fit width
Hearings are text arguments. Fit width is the zoom you want text at, and having it as the default saves a keystroke you will otherwise forget.
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Do one silent run before you leave
Open each exhibit, press W, confirm the mark is where you think. Five documents, two minutes, and no surprises at the podium.
Answering a question you did not plan for
This is the skill a hearing actually tests. The court asks about a document you had put down as background, and the whole room watches you find it. Press E, type a word from the exhibit's name, press Enter. That path stays inside the fullscreen view, so nothing but the document is ever shown, which matters more in a small courtroom where the bench can see your screen.
If the answer is on a page deep in a long declaration, type the page number and press Enter instead of scrolling. How to present a PDF in court covers the mechanics; presentation mode covers what the room sees while you do it.
Hearing questions
Should I bring paper as well?
Usually yes. A courtesy copy in the judge's hands is still the most reliable display technology in the building, and the screen supplements it.
Can I reuse this set at trial later?
Keep hearing sets separate and build the trial set fresh, because the numbering will almost certainly differ. Duplicating a trial is available if you want a starting point.
What if there is no screen for counsel?
Then the laptop is for you, not for the room. Its value becomes speed of retrieval when the court asks a question, which is still worth having.
Set up a motion hearing in ten minutes
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