Step 3: This Is Not the Time for New Evidence or Witnesses

This is Part 3 of our Trial Prep Series for Business Owners. Missed the overview? Read the full article here.

By the time your case gets to trial, our team—and you—will have spent months or even years preparing every detail. We’ve worked closely together to gather the evidence, identify the key witnesses, and anticipate what the other side may present. The likelihood that something has been missed should be extremely low if we’ve both done our jobs thoroughly.

This is why we put so much emphasis on trial preparation.

From the beginning of the case, we’ve asked you a long list of questions—sometimes more than once. We’ve reviewed documents, discussed timelines, and helped you think through who knew what and when. That thoroughness is not just about building a strong case—it’s about avoiding surprises when the stakes are highest.

But here’s the key point: Trial is not the place to remember something “important” that you forgot to tell us.

Courtrooms are not like TV dramas. In real litigation, the time for surprises has long passed. Courts require all evidence and witnesses to be disclosed well in advance. If you try to bring up something new at trial—a document you found in a drawer the night before, or someone you suddenly remembered was in the room during a key conversation—you could end up harming your own case.

Judges may refuse to let the evidence in. Worse, it could damage your credibility with the court and jury, if there is one.

This is why we stress: If it matters, tell us early.

Even if you think something isn’t important—or you’re unsure whether it helps or hurts—don’t keep it to yourself. Let us decide how it fits into the larger picture. Our job is to prepare for everything that can help your case and everything the other side might use against you. That only works when we have the full picture well before trial begins.

As we get closer to trial, your job is to resist the urge to revisit the facts or second-guess the work that’s been done. Trust the process we’ve built together. At this stage, it’s about execution—not adding new ingredients to the recipe.

Remember: trial is about presenting and arguing the case we’ve already built—not building a new one on the fly.