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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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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Why can courts refuse evidence?
The question
Layman here. This question was inspired by this question and random things I've heard/read over the years.
I'm quite confused by a concept that comes up again and again and which people ...
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Why is the defendant presumed guilty in traffic court?
This article says, "When it's your word against the police officer's [regarding a failure to stop at a stop sign], the person with the badge usually wins." It seems like the officer should ...
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Admissibility as evidence of photographs taken by a mobile phone
It would appear that Samsung has admitted that images captured using their mobile phones' "Scene Optimizer" feature (which can be disabled) are not necessarily an accurate photograph of what ...
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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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No evidence is required for an indictment by a grand jury?
I just read the indictment of Christopher Collins, a congressman, for relaying insider information on a company with publicly traded stock, and for "lying" to a federal agent, ie for denying he ...
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What if police find a dead body during an illegal search?
Suppose police conduct an illegal search of a residence (no warrant, no consent, no probable cause) and find a dead body. There is plenty of evidence in plain sight that it was a murder and also ...
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Are unaudited server logs admissible in a court of law?
Are internal server logs produced by a firm that has no standards compliance certification and does not conduct any third party audits admissible as evidence? If not, what certification is generally ...
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How would mathematical demonstratives be used in a court?
I remember in a children´s show when I was little that one episode featured a court case where the villain was accused of having too much land area in contravention of the laws of the town they were ...
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Can evidence a person gives to aid an investigation then be used to prosecute that person for an unrelated crime?
Consider the following scenario: a person consents to giving some evidence to aid the investigation or prosecution of a criminal,with the reasonable, good-faith assumption that the use of that ...
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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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Is the saying that "cops can use anything you say against you" overstated or understated?
Is everything one says to a cop in the course of an enquiry really admissable as evidence against them? Even if they deny allegations? Why is that?
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Could we understand that someone who is still 'innocent until proven otherwise', be 'possibly' guilty?
Although we accept that legally everyone is 'innocent until proven guilty', is it right for people to keep open in their minds the plausibility/possibility that the accused is guilty?
Or is this ...
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Can a covert recording be used as evidence in UK civil court?
I have a court case against my landlord for disrepair. At the end of last year I had enough of waiting for him to respond to all the issues we have in the property, and I've sent him a letter of claim....
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Does killing witnesses before trial suppress them?
If a witness is killed, or dies, before formally testifying at a criminal trial in what manner, if any, can his relevant statements be admitted or used against a defendant?
For example, if sworn ...
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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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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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Does the exclusionary rule attach to the illegality of the search or to the person whose rights were violated?
Police blatantly illegally searches Bob's house and finds very strong evidence that Bob and Rob independently committed a horrific crime each. A variation: the crime is the same and Bob and Rob ...
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If the Jury considers evidence that should be discarded in the US, what would the result be?
This comes from the movie A Guilty Conscience, which may be one of the best movies of the past 20 years in Hong Kong and its box office is the highest ever.
Movie Spoiler Warning
What if the defendant'...
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How do civil courts handle denial of evidence as forged, tampered, or claims that 'I did not sign it' or 'That's not me'?
In a Civil Trial, how do courts handle scenarios when evidences presented are denied (by plaintiff/defendent) as forged, tampered, or claims that 'I did not sign it' or 'That is not me'?
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Do data protection officers typically have any actual incentive to integrity in their performance of statutory duty?
Meet Bob. Bob was brutally assaulted by store security in a big corporate chain store.
Bob would like to obtain evidence of the same and thus submits a gdpr subject access request to the central head ...
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Can a witness be ignorant about a question asked to him in court?
Is it acceptable for a witness to give an answer to a question posed to him/her in court as I dont know or I'm uncertain?
This is not a refusal to testify it is just a lack of knowledge. Does the ...
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Legal/jurisprudential term to refer to any evidence that can be interpreted either way
Some time back, I had read a specific phrase used to refer to situations where some "evidence" can be interpreted either way.
For example:
Person A dies in a hospital and a syringe is found ...
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How do prosecutors prepare to cross-examine defendants?
Prosecutor Peter is preparing for a trial. Defendant Dexter may or may not take the witness stand. Peter has no idea what he would say if he does (no disclosure obligation on the defendant) but still ...
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Is propensity evidence ever allowed as circumstantial evidence?
I, being a non-expert in any country's/state's law, was somewhat surprised when it was said that propensity evidence isn't, in Wisconsin, legal evidence; see between 5.57 - 8.15 in this video about ...
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Offering money to potential witnesses in criminal proceedings
A friend of mine was involved in a confrontation with a police officer in the UK, in which the officer basically accused him of assault. While the officer was arresting him, a bystander shouted ...
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Can messenger chat be used as evidence in courts?
My roommate agreed that I don't need to pay rent for the days I am not in apartment. I have to go to Texas for a 6 month period. I informed my roommate before adding him as roommate. We had this ...
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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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What remedies are there if it was subsequently discovered that a witness lied at trial?
Suppose this is a tort case (my understanding is unlike a criminal case there is no double jeopardy in tort cases), where a plaintiff was suing a defendant for a lot of money in a tort.
A witness ...
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An attorney can't afford to pay for professional services to search & retrieve required documents for civil & criminal proceedings, what happens next?
If an attorney in the US is being required to produce substantial but selected legal records and documents for a mix of criminal and civil litigations against the attorney, and these documents are ...
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Is it illegal for police officers to delete video evidence of an arrest?
With how common smartphones are these days, many people film encounters with police officers as evidence in case things go wrong. In stories that make the news, occasionally police dashcam videos show ...
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Can disjunction elimination be used to convict someone of a crime without knowing which crime they committed?
Three different crimes are committed (for simplicity; the same type of crime, just distinct counts) by three different people. Someone is arrested based on evidence that proves they committed one of ...
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Secretly recorded audio to meeting with landlord and now starting a dispute against him. Can I submit it as evidence?
My ex-landlord preferred to communicate by in person meetings. I began covertly recording our meetings with the microphone on my phone. Only the audio was recorded, not the video. My ex-landlord was ...
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Can I have my personal information redacted from evidence in a case that doesn't directly involve me?
There is a case in the United States that has made its way through a city's municipal court, the district court, and is now going to be in the state's supreme court (Pennsylvania). I live in a ...
user3580
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What does "credible" mean?
Looking at the recently delivered findings and conclusions in Brandt et al. v. Rutledge et al., full text here. On pp. 56-57 of the PDF, one of the expert witnesses is discussed (emphasis added):
Dr. ...
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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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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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Is there any way to save a Facebook post as a third-party evidence in court?
Is there any way to save a Facebook post as third-party evidence to use in the court room? I need an authentic way of saving it, where the judge and juries will not cast question on the saving ...
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Can a Lease with Missing Pages be used as Evidence in Court?
Suppose a 10 page lease agreement is signed by a landlord and tenant. After a number of years, some of the pages were misplaced but each of the parties signed the bottom of each of the 10 pages (not ...
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Can one's personal electronic accounts be forced to be made accessible in a civil case like divorce?
If there's a criminal case, the police can get a warrant to access someone's electronic communications without the suspect's consent.
What about a civil case (if it makes a difference, let's say ...
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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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Admissibility of evidence seized from wrong property on lawful warrant (USA)
Suppose the Police obtain a warrant to search Alice's house for smuggled diamonds (something really tiny). When they arrive, they knock on Bob's door instead of Alice's. It's a common mistake to make, ...
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Can you de-identify a lawfully recorded audio-only call to lodge with the court and offer into evidence?
Bob, while providing lawful notice of call recording by beep-tone warning notification, records calls with a company that does not record calls where it ordinarily conveys information that exposes it ...
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What if a juror admits to having disregarded a judge's faulty instructions?
There are a number of situations where this could arise, but I'll use the one that I'm most familiar with: the Frank Quattrone (mis)trial.
Frank Quattrone was an investment banker who was charged and ...
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How does the US legal system prevent successful evidence tampering from reducing total punishment?
Flavor text:
You're suddenly startled by the feds knocking on your door. Someone must have squealed about the methamphetamine operation you've picked up as a hobby to try and save some money for your ...
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How long can the police hold a car that they're using for evidence?
My friend is going through the following in California:
She purchased a car roughly three years ago and uses it for everyday tasks. The police towed her car and told her that it was possibly used in ...
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Police believe unreported rape left evidence
Police know there's a serial rapist in a particular area. He's left no DNA and victims never saw his face. Police learn that a unknown female victim from that area was examined by a sexual assault ...
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How do you collect evidence to sue for robocalling?
What's the best way to collect evidence to be prepared to sue for robocalling like in King v Time Warner Cable, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 14-02018 (conclusion in html / ...
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