What Is Considered Admissible Evidence?
Any evidence admitted (considered admissible) to the court must be relevant, material, and competent. To be relevant, it has to have the ability to prove or disprove a fact. To be material, it has to prove a fact. To be competent, it has to prove a matter in an argument.
However, not all evidence is admissible, and there are some cases where specific evidence may not be admitted into court. This evidence is referred to as inadmissible evidence. With that being said, if you want to learn more about what can be considered admissible evidence, keep on reading.
What are the types of evidence?
There are four basic types of evidence that can be presented in any criminal case: demonstrative evidence, documentary evidence, real evidence, and testimonial evidence.
Demonstrative evidence is a type of evidence in the form of an object. Such evidence includes photographs of an accident, an x-ray of an injury, and the like. This is unlike real evidence, which must be tangible, like objects that are part of the crime scene. For instance, it could be a gun used in a murder.
Documentary evidence is a type of evidence that is presented in court as a document. It is a written proof to establish a fact that is in dispute. Finally, testimonial evidence is a statement made under oath to present what the individual has seen or experienced related to the crime scene.
Although the ability to prove the admissibility of the demonstrative, documentary, and real evidence is simple, testimonial evidence can be quite challenging. This is because a statement can be tainted with bias, foggy memory, and so on. As such, exceptions have to be made in court to see whether what is spoken is admissible or inadmissible.
How do you suppress inadmissible evidence?
As previously mentioned, regardless of what type of evidence is presented, some pieces of evidence are inadmissible. In other words, that piece of evidence is not relevant, material, or competent. To suppress this type of evidence, a party can ask before or even during the trial to have it suppressed on the grounds of admissibility.
An item can be inadmissible for many reasons. For instance, a piece of real evidence may have been improperly secured when it was collected to be presented in the trial. Such is the case of a mislabeled blood sample or a weapon that was not properly locked away. While such evidence may actually be admissible to court, the simple act of not keeping the item secure has made it inadmissible.
Use a tracker to secure evidence.
Keeping proper record and storage of the evidence is vital to ensure that a court case can proceed successfully—that the truth can be determined and justice can be enacted.
That being said, if you are a law firm or law enforcement organization trying to ensure your evidence does not get suppressed on the grounds of admissibility, using an evidence tracker is essential. By doing so, you can ensure that admissible evidence is properly secured to be presented to the court, guaranteeing that your clients’ claims are backed up with admissible evidence.
PMI evidence tracker in the US
PMI Evidence Tracker is a powerful management tool providing law firms with affordable, flexible, and user-friendly systems to manage evidence effectively and securely. If you are looking for evidence tracking solutions in the US, reach out to us today!
