Questions tagged [evidence]
For questions concerning evidence - including the handling of evidence, rejection or admittance of evidence in a court of law, and serving evidence in civil matters.
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How do you prove a fact at issue in litigation?
Many questions on this site ask some variant of the question: "how does one prove something in court?" Paraphrasing a few:
How do you prove that someone forged your signature?
How do you ...
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UK: Is it legal to secretly audio record a meeting or a phone call? Is it possible to use such recording in court?
In the United Kingdom:
Is it legal to secretly audio record a meeting (in an office) or a phone call while being a participant?
Is it possible to use such recording as an evidence in court or ...
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How is a judge to evaluate a witness's credibility?
How is a judge to evaluate a witness's credibility?
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Can a lawyer subject the court to a (temporary) ruse for a legitimate purpose?
This question is about the legality of a possible defence tactic that might be used in a criminal trial. It is a variation on things you see in lawyer movies fairly commonly. Suppose that a criminal ...
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Can a store accuse me of something and ban me without proof?
A chain store that I frequent has banned me from their store, citing that I was seen stealing merchandise. I've NEVER stolen anything from their store (or any other store of this chain) before, and ...
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Is following the flow of traffic a valid speeding defence in Texas?
As per the summary at http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/laws.html, Texas is one of the three states where there are no absolute speed limits -- a speed in excess of a posted limit is prima facie evidence that ...
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How to gather Compelling Evidence to prove that business is fraudulent?
My friend's small business agreed to a one-month risk-free trial service from one Credit Card Processor company. However, she did not like the service, because it did not live up to verbal promises ...
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Serving evidence to ex-landlord and being able to prove it
I am trying to save money as I don't have much to spare. I need to serve the landlord with any documents that I serve the court. Typically this is done through registered mail, but this is expensive ...
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In what states is it legal for an admin to read email on a server or Google Apps Account?
There is a scenario wherein some questionable activity has take place by a member of an organization. The administrator of the organization's Google Apps account was able to retrieve this user's ...
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Can a U.S. phone call recorded in a 1-party state be used as evidence in a case tried in a state that is 2-party?
Hypothetically, let's say someone is involved in a case that was originally filed in a NJ state court. The case was moved to a NJ federal court, and then transferred to a FLA federal court (after a ...
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When is it ok to use tabloid news as evidence in court?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfLlAVFJZXg
When is it ok to use tabloid news as evidence in court? Am I crazy, or this is irrelevant, full of hearsays and speculations therefore these tabloids ...
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A man killed my son and married one of the witnesses. Can the witness's statements still be used in court against him?
In Florida a career felon, who is a complete stranger to my son, killed my son. He is being prosecuted for this crime in a state court in Florida. There are two witnesses. One of them is the the ...
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When does silence imply consent?
Does the saying qui tacet consentire videtur (silence implies consent) carry any weight in civil litigation?
For example, suppose that Alice emails Bob, "When I began work we agreed that the rate ...
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Self incrimination vs. obstruction of justice / destruction of evidence
Suppose a police officer has probable cause to arrest me based on evidence in plain sight. He wants to initiate a search pursuant to arrest.
Before the officer can detain me, I put the (alleged) ...
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Are there penalties for withholding self-exculpatory evidence during a trial?
Suppose a person is put on trial for a crime, but he has video evidence showing his innocence. Out of malice or spite of a personal nature towards his accuser, he allows the trial to proceed, and ...
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Are jurors instructed to not be influenced by the emotions of the witnesses?
The 61 year old witness for the prosecution of the Floyd case broke down and cried uncontrollably.
Does the judge give instructions to the jurors that they cannot allow the emotions of the witnesses ...
user36735
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If police collected evidence based off of a call they suspected, but couldn't prove, was fraudulant would the evidence be upheld?
I'm asking this hypothetical situation mostly as I was considering writing a story with the premise and want the story to be legally accurate, but also because I'm frankly curious how the law would ...
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Calling a judge as a witness in a case that the judge is presiding over?
I want to pose a question on the limits of a defendant's right to call people to testify at trial.
Let's assume that a judge is conducting a trial (the sort of trial is irrelevant - it could be ...
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Applying Bayes' Theorem to law and forensic evidence
I realise that every scenario is unique, but are there are guiding principles forensics investigators use to estimate the prior probability of guilt of a person (P(G)) when using Bayes' Theorem to ...
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How common actually are perjury proceedings?
I’ve read a number of tenant advice materials that caution that landlords frequently lie at court and so one really has to be prepared for this to potentially happen.
Meanwhile, I have read a number ...
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Must the State compensate individuals from whom property is seized as evidence?
Pursuant to the Fourth Amendment, law enforcement officers routinely obtain warrants under a "probable cause" standard to seize items that may contain evidence of a crime.
This is a taking of private ...
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Why does double jeopardy apply even when the acquittal was due to insufficiency of evidence?
In the United States, the Double Jeopardy Clause of the U.S. constitution has been held to prohibit retrying a person for a crime they were previously acquitted of, even if the acquittal was merely ...
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How can testimony not be hearsay
The first defining condition for hearsay under Federal Rules of Evidence 801(c)(1) is that it is a statement which the declarant does not make while testifying at the current trial or hearing. As I ...
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Can a person be found guilty based purely on statistical evidence?
Imagine that there is a home care worker Alice who takes care of some great number of outpatients. Some significant proportion of them have reported thefts, although none of them suspect Alice. Since ...
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Text message legally binding?
I owed my landlord from a small claims case. I was making payment towards the debt until I lost my business. Recently I contacted her to negotiate the pending debt. She sent me a text responding ...
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In a criminal trial, is the prosecution allowed to discuss its plea bargaining with the defendant?
Suppose that someone is charged with a crime. Before they are arraigned, they negotiate with the prosecution about a potential plea bargain, but do not reach one and instead go to trial.
During the ...
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Are you required to act to preserve evidence that will otherwise be destroyed?
Deliberate destruction of evidence is a crime in most jurisdictions. However, consider the following scenarios:
Log files that could be used as evidence are periodically deleted unless you act.
On ...
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Does lack of evidence constitute evidence?
This question is about the debate in the comments to this question.
Question
Does lack of evidence constitute evidence?
Transcript of Comments
...I am curious how a prosecutor would prove that a ...
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When gun used to kill in self defense and the gun is taken as evidence, can you get it back?
Scenario:
John Doe uses a gun to kill a criminal in self defense. That gun, the one used, is taken as evidence by law enforcement so it can be investigated and/or used trial or for whatever reasons ...
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Consequences of introducing inadmissible evidence to the judge and jury
Evidence may be inadmissible, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will be ineffectual in its influence of the jury, and the judge. For example, evidence proving a horrendous crime done by the accused,...
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Does one-way written communication bear legal standing?
This question is based on this question over on Workplace SE. I am neither the OP of that question nor in any way related to the OP, I'm asking this question out of personal curiosity. In brief, the ...
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Can results from a criminal conviction be transplanted into a corresponding civil case?
There is some overlap between crimes and torts, for example deliberately smacking a person in the head is the crime of battery and the tort of battery. If a person deliberately smacks another in the ...
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Is evidence from a vigilante 'sting' operation accepted in UK courts?
This is a hypothetical question based on a trend seen on Facebook.
Sometimes vigilantes will set up a 'sting' operation. For example, they may pose online masquerading as a child to catch pedophiles.
...
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"Enforcement" of 4th amendment absent exclusionary rule
The Supreme Court recently decided Utah v. Strieff, 579 U.S. ___, in which it held that the attenuation exception to the exclusionary rule was satisfied by the discovery of an arrest warrant following ...
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Can phone conversations be used in court as defense?
I live in California where all parties involved in the phone conversation have to give consent before phone conversation can be recorded.
My question is - how the information discussed over the phone ...
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What burden of proof is needed on factual aspects of discrimination claims to invoke the statutory provision for shifting the overall burden of proof?
S136 Equality Act 2010 provides for shifting the burden of proof. But what standard does the claimant have to make out the preliminary facts to in order to engage this section?
And is testimonial ...
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Is a speeding ticket invalid if the listed speed is not what it was?
I recall reading about speeding ticket defenses in some jurisdiction in the United States or Canada that the fact that the officer "reduced" the alleged speed that he obtained through his radar and ...
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Will this be considered proof of purchase?
Each product has a traceable serial number, and to operate the product, it must be registered and activated through the manufacturer's software. The registration and activation process requires the ...
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What's the best way to include e-mails as evidence from a technical perspective?
It probably would be easiest to copy and paste quotes from emails into my evidence submission. But of course text could easily be changed in this format. I could take a screen shot of the email as I ...
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How does "innocent until proven guilty" apply to non-payment?
Say I make a big win at a casino and walk out with a suitcase full of cash*. I decide I want to buy a car with it, so I head down to a car dealership, and buy a car - which I pay for by handing over ...
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Are generalized descriptions of suspects considered lawfully admissable?
My question mainly pertains to descriptions law enforcement receives from individuals reporting a crime.
My example would be as follows:
Officer John receives complaint of irate black male with ...
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Is it legal to upload a photo from a public place without the subject's permission?
For example, a buddy of mine recorded or captured a photo/video of someone let us say fighting or just talking in a public place such as the public road. It is legal to post it in social media even ...
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Can a phone conversation be summoned from telecom operator as evidence in court of law
Our landlord/landlady have twice made statements that suggest they breached our privacy. We have not recorded our conversations since we understand it would be illegal to do so.
However, we wish to ...
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Is it legal to film yourself putting something in a mail slot? [duplicate]
I need to serve someone papers, and I need to be able to prove that I served them. It is an acceptable method to drop them off at their homes mail box, but then if contested I wouldn't be able to ...
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Is there any law (US, UK, or Canadian) that limits the scope of a search, so that unrelated crimes can't be prosecuted?
Are search warrants limited to evidence for a specific crime?
For example, assume a search warrant is issued based on probable cause of property theft. While executing this search warrant, the police ...
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Are exhibits presented in order of importance or the order they'relisted?
Are exhibits listed in the order they appear or in order of importance? I'm following the sample format on my county's "self-help center" for pro se litigants, and the example is for another ...
user31745
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What legal course is there with a bad neighbor?
I have a very bad neighbor. What legal recourse do I have? I feel like I'm stumbling in the dark.
I find myself at a loss for an appropriate Stack Exchange site. Perhaps "workplace" or "parenting" ...
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Do undercover/plainclothed police (ever?) wear bodycams? Or be required to be on CCTV?
Is it another question or part of asking this, but are undercover/plainclothed police (ever?) required to be on CCTV?
Some of these people are very talkative, verbal, expressive, often cursing/...
