Evidence: Types of Evidence Admissible in a Law Court

General principles relating to evidence

The first rule of evidence is that it must be relevant to be admissible. For the evidence to be relevant, those facts which are subject to being proved or disproved must amount to:

Facts in issue, i.e. those which need to be proved by one party;
Relevant facts, i.e. those which tend to prove the facts in issue;
Collateral facts which may for example affect the credibility and/or competence of a witness.

Types of evidence

There are a number of different types of evidence:

Testimony - the oral statement of a witness made on oath in open court and put forward as evidence of the truth of what he or she says.
Real evidence - this is usually a material object of some kind, which is produced for inspection, either to prove that it exists, or so that the court can make an inference as to its condition or value, for example ripped clothing, a knife or burnt document.
Hearsay evidence - when a witness, or someone else, makes a statement other than in the course of their testimony, this is referred to as an ‘out of court statement.’ Hearsay evidence is an out of court statement which is being relied upon to prove the truth of its contents.
Original evidence - this is an out of court statement offered for a relevant purpose other than proving the truth of its contents, for example to prove something was said at all.
Documentary evidence - this consists of documents which have been produced for inspection by the court. These may be items of real evidence, original evidence or hearsay.

Real evidence

Real evidence usually takes the form of some kind of material object produced before the court. it is normally produced to show that it exists or so that an inference can be drawn from its physical properties or its condition, or from the fact that it was found at a particular place or in someone’s possession. An example of real evidence would be a knife alleged to have been used in the commission of a murder or faulty goods produced to show evidence of the particular fault in question.

Real evidence includes: material objects; the appearance of people/animals; demeanour of witnesses; views and documents.

Original evidence

Original evidence is defined as an out of court statement tendered for some purpose other than to establish the truth of the facts it contains. The making of the statement will wither itself be a fact in issue, or relevant to a fact in issue.

The statement as a fact in issue:

Where the making of a statement is, itself, a fact in issue, the statement will be admissible to show that it was made, but it will remain inadmissible as to the truth of its contents.

Statements relevant to a fact in issue:

Making of statement relevant to a fact in issue; Statement admitted to show the state of mind of the maker; Statement admitted to show state of mind of person who heard it; Statement admitted to allow tribunal of fact to draw inferences from falsity of statement.

Hearsay evidence

To prove the truth of its content. This includes an out of court statement made by the witness him or herself as well as an out of court statement made to the witness by someone else. The admissibility of hearsay evidence is set out under s 114 of The Criminal Justice Act 2003. S 115 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 further tightens up the definition by making it clear that you need to consider the purpose of the person making the statement (as well as the purpose of the party relying upon it in court) when deciding whether a piece of evidence is hearsay evidence or not.


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Evidence