Counsel's Advise on Evidence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Counsel's Advise on Evidence - Essay Example Admissibility is quality or character which any material presented in a court of law as evidence must possess before the same can be allowed to be to be introduced in court as evidence. The images and photographs in this case must possess the required qualities so that they can act as evidence in a court of law. In this computer era, the nature of photography is necessary to determine the applicable rules of evidence. The nature of photography may be either digital or analogue. But before going deeper into this it is important to know that there are two main requirements for acceptance of any form of photography as evidence. These are relevance and authentication. The rule of relevance is a general rule for admissibility in evidence and what amounts to relevance is determined at the discretion of each judge (Hugh, 2003, p. 67). A chain of custody which includes the chain of the undeveloped film will in some rare cases be required. In some other cases, where the photograph is offered for its truth and forms the basis of issue in the case, then the best evidence rule applies. However, the most important of all these requirements is authentication. The party who introduces any form of photography must be ready to testify that the photography is correct and accurate unless the piece of photography is accepted by stipulation of the parties. The concern of the solicitors in this case is on the surveillance and monitoring where the digital images can be processed with ease. Admissibility on the account of authenticity is an issue that needs to be addressed in this case. Digital images are stored in binary format in the memory of a computer.