User:LGreg/sandbox/Approaches to Knowledge (LG seminar 2020/21)/Seminar 18/Evidence/Evidence in law

Evidence in law
Evidence in law is defined by: “any of the material items or assertions of fact that may be submitted to a competent tribunal as a means of ascertaining the truth of any alleged matter of fact under investigation before it.” The aim of evidence is to assist the judge to reach a decision in the court case.

These are examples of some of the types of evidence in law: demonstrative, real and testimonial. Demonstrative evidence directly demonstrates a fact, for example a testimony given by a witness. Real evidence is evidence used in the case and also presented in court. These are commonly physical objects. Testimonial evidence is either a written or spoken statement given by a witness. There are also rules that this evidence must follow. The evidence must be: admissible, authentic, complete, reliable and believable.

Evidence can also be described as either direct or circumstantial. Direct evidence is evidence that can directly prove or disprove a fact. Often this includes eyewitnesses or dated documents. Circumstantial evidence is the opposite, where a fact is not directly disproven and requires more information to be proven.

Exclusion of evidence
Under certain circumstances, evidence may be excluded from court. Often this has something to do with how the evidence was obtained. The jury must then look at these circumstances (perhaps where the evidence was obtained illegally or unfairly) and make a decision of whether the evidence should be admitted. However, this applies only to prosecution evidence.

Hearsay is a testimony provided from a witness, outside of court to provide the truth. Hearsay is also not admissible unless a rule states otherwise. However, the FRE (Federal Rules of Evidence) includes a number of exceptions to allow hearsay evidence in court.

False evidence
Tampering or falsification of evidence is illegal. The crime of tampering with evidence includes destroying, concealing or altering evidence that could otherwise be used in the case with the aim of affecting the outcome. This also includes tampering with witnesses. False information is either obtained or created with the same aim of affecting the outcome of the court case.