Evidence Admissibility in a Court of Law


Evidence Admissibility in a Court of Law

All evidence is not appropriate for admission into a court. The court applies specific rules to the evidence submitted. It would be a waste of time to carefully analyze evidence that the court refuses to consider. Some evidence never has a chance of making it to court, and good evidence can be tainted by an investigator on its way to court, making it unacceptable.

Know what separates valid evidence from invalid evidence. It will save you substantial amounts of time, and it could make the difference between a successful and unsuccessful case.

Relevance and Admissibility

The courts apply two basic standards to all evidence. Any evidence you want to use in a court case must be relevant and admissible . Relevant evidence is any evidence that proves or disproves the facts in a case. If evidence does not serve to prove or disprove the facts in a case, it can be deemed irrelevant and, therefore, not allowed.

relevant evidence

Evidence that serves to prove or disprove facts in a case.

In addition to evidence being judged relevant, the evidence must also be admissible. Admissible evidence is evidence that conforms to all regulations and statues in nature and the manner in which the evidence was obtained and collected. Certain evidence may be relevant, but not admissible.

admissible evidence

Evidence that meets all regulatory and statute requirements, and has been properly obtained and handled.

There are many reasons evidence could be inadmissible. Unfortunately, investigators can contribute to the inadmissibility of evidence. The two quickest ways to render good evidence inadmissible are

  1. Illegally collect the evidence.

  2. Modify the evidence after it is in your possession.

It is extremely important that investigators be diligent in all activities to preserve all evidence in an admissible state. Inadmissible evidence weakens your case, and the effort you put into obtaining evidence that is deemed inadmissible is often wasted time.

Make every effort to maintain the admissibility of evidence, starting from the beginning of your investigation. All too often, investigations start as internal incident response efforts that do not include law enforcement. During an investigation, you might determine that an incident involved criminal activity. At that point, it is time to involve law enforcement. This is why it is important to preserve evidence before criminal activity is discovered . IRT procedures should be consistent with court requirements for collecting and handling evidence. If not, valuable evidence might become inadmissible before the criminal investigation gets underway.

Techniques to Ensure Admissibility

Your main goal in an investigation is to ensure the admissibility of evidence. The IRT is responsible for ensuring that the damage from an incident has been contained and the organization's primary business functions can continue. As an investigator, you must operate with different goals. In smaller organizations, separating these two responsibilities can be difficult.

You must remember the importance of evidence preservation. Make sure you collect and handle evidence properly at each step. The success of your court appearance may depend on the quality of your part of the investigation.

Know the Rules

Before you ever participate in an investigation, you should know the rules surrounding evidence collection and handling. Each state imposes slightly different rules, so know your local laws and policies. There are also very different rules for different types of evidence. For example, analyzing a database that contains confidential personal medical information will have more stringent requirements than a database containing a parts inventory. Ask questions before engaging in evidence collection. In this case, forgiveness is far more difficult to obtain than permission.

The best place to start is by developing a relationship with your local law enforcement agents . Call your local agency and ask for the computer forensics unit. Meet with them and take the time to learn how they approach investigations. Most of the time, law enforcement officers will gladly provide guidance to you and help you comply with their investigative requirements. Learning from them will save both of you substantial time and effort when an event occurs that requires law enforcement involvement.

Also spend some time with your own organization's legal folks. They can provide valuable input that will guide your investigative efforts as well. The goal is to ensure your processes comply with any statutes, regulations, and policies before an investigation starts.

Protect the Chain of Custody

Once you find yourself in the midst of an investigation, take every effort to protect the chain of custody. The best process is worthless if it is not followed and enforced. If your process requires that the evidence locker is physically locked at all times, never leave it unlocked while you 'run a quick check.' Even small deviations from the published policy can render evidence inadmissible.

Be doggedly diligent in protecting evidence. You should allow only trained personnel near evidence. Make sure they are trained in the importance of evidence handling. The cost of training is far less than the cost of losing valuable evidence due to a single careless event. Defense attorneys will look for such mistakes. Take care to ensure you do not make any.

Treat Each Incident as a Criminal Act

The single most important practice to keep in mind is that of treating every incident as a criminal act. Always assume that the evidence you collect will be used in a court case. You'll go a long way to ensure all collected evidence is admissible. It is a lot easier to loosen up the evidence collection standards, once you decide there will be no need for law enforcement involvement, than it is to fix a sloppy collection effort later in the investigation.

Always assuming evidence will be used in court will also tend to make you more diligent in evidence handling procedures. The knowledge that evidence is only for internal use can foster a more casual atmosphere that may lead to more mistakes. Take the high road and treat all evidence as though a judge will see it. It will increase the overall quality of your investigative work.

If you assume you will end up presenting your evidence in court, you have to ensure it is pristine. In the next section, we'll look at issues related to keeping evidence pure and unspoiled.




Computer Forensics JumpStart
Computer Forensics JumpStart
ISBN: 0470931663
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 153

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