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Trial Preparation: A Beginner’s Guide

A research guide created by the Law Library of Congress about discovery, witness preparation, and other issues that researchers might consider when preparing for trial.

Introduction

We receive a wide array of questions here at the Law Library of Congress—from detailed foreign legal research, to tracing U.S. federal legislation, and everything in between—but one area of legal research on which we consistently receive requests for assistance is the U.S. legal process. Specifically, researchers (including pro se litigants External, or those who choose to act as their own legal counsel) have many questions regarding court procedure, and the laws, rules, and conventions that dictate how litigants should proceed during a court case.

Harris & Ewing, photographer. Lawyers sign register at opening of Supreme Court. Washington, D.C., Oct. 3.... 1938. Harris & Ewing Collection. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.