Straight answers to the discovery problems attorneys actually hit: files that won't open, links that die, formats from another decade, and how to use AI on a case without stepping on your duty of confidentiality.
Compare two fictional accounts and see how source references support an attorney's review.
Open the worked exampleA .ufdr file is a report for Cellebrite Reader. Start with the complete production and an official copy of Reader, then check what the report includes before treating its contents as the whole phone.
UpdatedSecurity camera footage in discovery loves to arrive as .dav, .264, or a folder with its own crusty player from 2009. Windows won't play it, VLC might not either, and your hearing isn't moving.
You opened the email a week late and the download link is dead, or the portal says access expired. You're not the first, and the fix is usually a request away.
The State produced your client's jail calls and they're in some format your computer shrugs at, or a player that wants to install itself. Meanwhile there are 240 of them.
Before uploading discovery to an AI tool, check the firm's authority to use it, the terms for the exact account, and the restrictions on the matter. A product name or a paid subscription does not answer those questions.
UpdatedAn AI transcript can help you search bodycam footage and prepare questions. Using it in court requires a separate decision about accuracy, purpose, the applicable evidence rules, and the judge's directions.
UpdatedMore and more agencies produce bodycam through Axon's Evidence.com portal. The share email looks simple, the access is real, and it quietly disappears on a schedule you don't control.
Half the laptops sold in the last five years have no disc drive, and plenty of DA offices still produce discovery on burned DVDs. So the evidence sits in a paper sleeve on your desk, technically produced, practically unreadable.
Every Texas defense lawyer knows the bind: your client is entitled to understand the evidence against them, and article 39.14 says they can look but can't keep. The meeting where you bridge that gap is some of the most important work in the case.
A report and a recorded interview can describe the same event differently. We use AI to help review the discovery you provide together, so attorneys can compare accounts and find the material behind a summary.
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