Earlier this week, I had the privilege of presenting two Continuing Legal Education sessions for Michigan judges on the topic of social media and other digital evidence. We reviewed the various use cases in which lawyers most often rely on digital evidence; the various methods used to regulate discovery of social media posts; the challenges in authenticating digital evidence; and the bases for admitting such files into evidence.
Although I was pleased to lead the discussion and contribute my research, I was also fascinated to hear the judges' first-hand accounts of their own experiences with digital evidence. After all, the reported judicial decisions I discussed were from cases originally filed years ago, and that have taken years to wind their way through the appellate process--not to mention that most evidentiary disputes never get appealed or reported in any manner.
Below I've embedded the Prezi slides I used to illustrate my presentation. You can also download the handout I distributed, which catalogs most of the reported digital media-related decisions made by Michigan courts within the last year and a half.
https://prezi.com/vc_2i8mzsnso/2015-mi-judicial-seminar-digital-evidence/
