Using PDF-Xchange Viewer to Rid Yourself of Exhibit Stickers

I have posted previously about the benefits of using PDF-Xchange Viewer instead of Adobe Reader to view and edit PDF files. Click here to download the free version.

Here's how to use the free version PDF-Xchange Viewer to dramatically reduce the number of yellow "Exhibit" stickers you purchase every month.

1. Take a yellow Exhibit sticker--preferably the kind that just says "Exhibit," not "Plaintiff's Exhibit" or "Defendant's Exhibit," and physically paste it onto a blank sheet of paper.

2. Scan the blank sheet of paper with the Exhibit sticker into your system in color.

3. Open the scanned sheet of paper in PDF-Xchange Viewer.

4. Use the camera clipper and clip an image around the Exhibit sticker.

5. Go to the stamp icon and pull up the drop-down menu.

6. Select "Show Stamps Palette."

7. Choose "Create New Stamps Collection" on the upper left-hand side of the Show Stamps Palette window.

8. Select "Create New Stamp from Clipboard Image" on the upper right-hand side of the Show Stamps Palette window.

9. Your Exhibit sticker should now appear in your new stamp collection.

10. Name your Exhibit sticker collection anything you want.

Now you can organize your scanned documents as trial and hearing exhibits without having to paste on exhibit stickers. What's great is you can use PDF-Xchange's typewriter function and type anything you want on the exhibit sticker stamped on your scanned documents, such "P-1" or "P-MSJ-3."

The Unimpeachable Weather Report (Sort of)

Many times in a case you'll need to prove what the weather conditions were like on a particular day. This may be for obvious reasons, such as in an auto accident case. You may also need to prove someone's whereabouts on a particular day or negate reliance or damages in a construction defect case. For whatever reason, you can probably find the data your looking for straight from Uncle Sam, in admissible form no less.

Michael Steven's blog has a great post about obtaining weather data from the National Climatic Data Center (a branch of the Department of Commerce--who knew?).

The question then arises: What do you do when the opposition argues that the data is suspect because it was recorded, produced, and maintained by someone who was likely miles and miles away from the scene?

Having thought about this a bit further in case I did, I went ahead and requested a certified copy of DOC's EIS-C1 Memo, which explains how the data is collected, analyzed, and maintained. Although I've never been able to actually try it out in a case, there doesn't seem to be any reason why you wouldn't be able to read relevant portions of this memo to a jury.

If anyone tries it, let me know how the evidentiary ruling turns out.