Documentary evidence

Documentary evidence

Documentary evidence is any evidence introduced at a trial in the form of documents. Although this term is most widely understood to mean writings on paper (such as an invoice, a contract or a will), the term actually include any media by which information can be preserved. Photographs, tape recordings, films, and printed emails are all forms of documentary evidence.

Documentary versus physical evidence

A piece of evidence is not documentary evidence if it is presented for some purpose other than the examination of the contents of the document. For example, if a blood-spattered letter is introduced solely to show that the defendant stabbed the author of the letter from behind as it was being written, then the evidence is physical evidence, not documentary evidence. However, a film of the murder taking place would be documentary evidence (just as a written description of the event from an eyewitness). If the content of that same letter is then introduced to show the motive for the murder, then the evidence would be both physical and documentary.

Authentication

Documentary evidence is subject to specific forms of authentication, usually through the testimony of an eyewitness to the execution of the document, or to the testimony of a witness able to identify the handwriting of the purported author. Documentary evidence is also subject to the best evidence rule, which requires that the original document be produced unless there is a good reason not to do so.


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • documentary evidence — index certification (attested copy) Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 documentary evidence …   Law dictionary

  • documentary evidence — Tangible objects capable of expressing a fact or tending to establish the truth or untruth of a matter at issue, including all kinds of documents, records, and writings. 29 Am J2d Ev § 834. In oral evidence, the witness is the person who speaks;… …   Ballentine's law dictionary

  • documentary evidence — Evidence derived from conventional symbols (such as letters) by which ideas are represented on material substances. Such evidence as is furnished by written instruments, inscriptions, documents of all kinds, and also any inanimate objects… …   Black's law dictionary

  • documentary evidence — Evidence derived from conventional symbols (such as letters) by which ideas are represented on material substances. Such evidence as is furnished by written instruments, inscriptions, documents of all kinds, and also any inanimate objects… …   Black's law dictionary

  • model of documentary evidence — patvirtinamasis dokumentas statusas Aprobuotas sritis ekologinis ūkininkavimas apibrėžtis Remiantis reglamento (EB) Nr. 834/2007, reglamento (EB) Nr. 889/2008 ir Ekologinio žemės ūkio taisyklių reikalavimais sertifikavimo įstaigos ekologinės… …   Lithuanian dictionary (lietuvių žodynas)

  • evidence — ev·i·dence 1 / e və dəns, ˌdens/ n [Medieval Latin evidentia, from Latin, that which is obvious, from evident evidens clear, obvious, from e out of, from + videns, present participle of videre to see]: something that furnishes or tends to furnish …   Law dictionary

  • documentary — doc·u·men·ta·ry /ˌdä kyə men tə rē/ adj: being, consisting of, or contained in documents documentary evidence Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of Law. Merriam Webster. 1996 …   Law dictionary

  • Documentary — Doc u*men ta*ry, a. Pertaining to written evidence; contained or certified in writing. Documentary evidence. Macaulay …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • evidence — /ev i deuhns/, n., v., evidenced, evidencing. n. 1. that which tends to prove or disprove something; ground for belief; proof. 2. something that makes plain or clear; an indication or sign: His flushed look was visible evidence of his fever. 3.… …   Universalium

  • evidence — Any species of proof, or probative matter, legally presented at the trial of an issue, by the act of the parties and through the medium of witnesses, records, documents, exhibits, concrete objects, etc., for the purpose of inducing belief in the… …   Black's law dictionary

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