Digital evidence opens up a new,
untapped chapter of forensic science. These days, your Facebook post or Word
file can and will be used in or against your favor in court.
Yet digital evidence hardly changes
the rules for acquiring evidence in general. For any medium to qualify as valid
evidence, it must possess the distinct qualities of admissibility, which
entails a whole host of questions. For instance, where and when was the
evidence obtained? Is it relevant to the case at hand? Was it even obtained
under due process?
Tech-savvy
defense lawyers know how to work with these questions and hopefully render
the evidence unusable in court. The merit of the case follows suit, as there's
not enough admissible evidence to use. In addition, just like physical
evidence, hearsay and secondhand testimonies on social media posts cannot be
considered admissible evidence.
Lawyers are careful with presenting
and refuting evidence since, even with evidence favoring the other side's claim
by a landslide, legal technicality can be a hard blow. Even the slightest
change in a description of the crime scene can make or break a case.
Nevertheless, it's good to know that the tried-and-true rules of admissibility
still apply in this age of modern technology.
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