Exhibits are documents, photographs, communications, financial records, reports, and other tangible items offered to the court as evidence. In Arizona family law hearings and trials, exhibits must be identified, marked, disclosed to the other party in advance, and properly admitted into evidence before the judge can consider them.

The most common exhibits in family law cases include bank statements and financial records, tax returns, pay stubs, text messages and emails, photographs, police reports, medical records, school records, Orders of Protection, and business records. The exhibit list submitted with the pre-trial statement must account for every document you intend to use at trial.

Foundation matters. Before an exhibit can be admitted the offering party typically needs to establish what the document is, where it came from, and why it is what it purports to be. Witnesses can authenticate documents they created, received, or have personal knowledge of. Some documents are self-authenticating under the rules.

Never assume an exhibit will come in without objection. Prepare the foundation for every document you intend to use. And never plan to use an exhibit at trial that has not been timely disclosed to the other party. Surprise is not a strategy. It is a basis for exclusion.