About the Lawcards Series
Evidence Lawcards Checklist
Chapter 1: Relevance, admissibility and weight
- Relevance, admissibility and weight
- Basic concepts
- Human rights and the law of evidence
- Evidential forms
- Relevance, weight and admissibility
- Functions of a judge and jury
- Disclosure
Chapter 2: Burden of proof
- Reverse onus (legal burdens) of proof and the Human Rights Act
- The prima facie case
- Standard of proof
- Presumptions of fact
- Irrebuttable presumptions of law
- Rebuttable presumptions of law
- Presumption and the ECHR
- Facts not requiring proof
- Formal admissions
- Judicial notice
- Use of personal knowledge
Chapter 3: Unfair and Illegally obtained evidence
- Civil cases
- Criminal cases
- The common law discretion to exclude
- Evidence obtained by illegal or unfair means
- The exercise of the discretion
- Section 78 and entrapment
- Abuse of process
- Intercept evidence
Chapter 4: Competence, compellability and special measures directions
- Civil cases
- Children in civil cases
- Persons of impaired intellect in civil cases
- Criminal cases
- Defendants in criminal cases
- Spouses and civil partners of defendants in criminal cases
- Children in criminal cases
- Persons of impaired intellect in criminal cases
- Protecting vulnerable or intimidated witnesses
- Witness anonymity
- Special measures directions for defendants
Chapter 5: The course of testimony
- Examination-in-chief
- Cross-examination
- Cross-examination on previous inconsistent statements
- Re-examination
- Refreshing memory
- Previous consistent statements
- Hostile witnesses
- Cross-examination of complainants in sex cases
- Collateral questions
Chapter 6: Identification evidence
- Identification and Turnbull guidelines
- Identifications inside and outside court
- Code D of PACE
Chapter 7: Hearsay
- Definition of hearsay
- Admissibility categories of hearsay evidence
- Statutory exceptions
- Section 116: Cases where a witness is unavailable
- Section 117: Business and other documents
- Section 118: Preserved Common Law exceptions
- Section 114(1)(d): Admissibility in the interests of justice
- Previous statements under sections 119, 120 and 139
- Other considerations
- The Civil Evidence Act 1995
Chapter 8: Confessions
- Recognising a confession
- Excluding a confession under s 76 of PACE
- Section 78(1) of PACE
- The exercise of the discretion
- The common law discretion to exclude
- Use of confessions by a co-defendant
- Section 34 of the CJPOA
Chapter 9: Character evidence
- Evidence of good character
- Bad character
- Persons other than the defendant: non-defendant’s bad character
- A defendant’s bad character
- Other considerations
- Criminal statutes allowing bad character evidence
Chapter 10: Opinion evidence
- When is opinion evidence admissible?
- Evidence from psychiatrists and psychologists
- Expert evidence on the ‘ultimate issue’
- Civil proceedings
- Additional powers under Part 35 of the Civil Procedure Rules
Chapter 11: Privilege and Public interest immunity
- Privilege against self-incrimination
- Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights
- Defendant’s silence upon accusation
- Defendant’s failure to answer questions or mention facts
- Legal professional privilege
- Bypassing the privilege via secondary evidence
- ‘Without prejudice’ statements
- What is public interest immunity?
- When can public interest immunity operate?
- Criminal procedure rules 2005