What is Evidence and Circumstantial evidence:
What is Evidence?
Evidence is the body of facts or documents tendered in the court by the parties in the suit in order to establish their case or defence. Conventionally, just it is expected of the plaintiff to adduce some evidence in the court in order to establish his claim, it is also expected of the defendant to tender some evidence to establish his defence. This evidential burden of proof in civil cases rest on the probability or preponderance.
The court is a court of law and fact and it is not a place for fictional story because it is usually said that fictional story belongs to alice in wanderland. So, while approaching the court, the only enabling shovel to your success or failure in your case or defence lies on the evidence that you can tender and secure it’s admission in the court.
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In course of the trial, parties shall be expected to tender all the evidence with which they want to establish their case or defence. They can do this through one witness or through many witness. The important part is that the court shall always decide cases based on the facts and evidence presented before them.
The parties may decide to tender the following types of evidence:
Real Evidence:
Real evidence is the evidence in substance which can be tendered in the court for the physical inspection. The real evidence helps in establishing the case of the person tendering it when it has not been punched by the evidence of the opposing counsel. Real evidence covers those evidence that can be seen and touch. They are solid in nature. This can extend to cover the gun recovered from the crime scene in a murder case.
Oral Evidence:
Oral Evidence can also be call direct evidence. This is the oral testimony of the witness. It also covers the witness statement on oath. It can be recalled that because of the issue of frontloading that the witness is now expected to frontload their evidence in the court before the day for hearing. Frontloading is the process of preparing and serving the court and the other party the court process which one intends to come and argue in the court.
The witness statement on oath is also an oral evidence. From the foregoing, it can be stated that oral evidence can either be in oral format or written format but what is important is that it is the direct evidence of the witness.
Please do take note that Oral evidence cannot be used to contradict the content of a document except if the document has been altered.
Circumstantial Evidence:
Circumstantial evidence can also be called indirect evidence or inferential evidence. This is the type of evidence that is inferred from the circumstance of what happened. Under this type of evidence, the courts are allowed to infer the evidence from the facts presented before them. This type of evidence covers doctrine of last seen.
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Do remember that the court can ground conviction based on an uncontroverted circumstantial evidence. This type of evidence can also be held to be fragile because at the punch on it with a better evidence, the fall is always high.
Hearsay evidence:
It is a general principle of law that Hearsay evidence is inadmissible. However, there are series of exceptions. Hearsay evidence is an evidence of a person who was told about the facts of which he tendering before the court. It has been stated above that court is not a place for telling stories and parties are not expected to be coming to the court with stories from their forefathers or late relations. Meanwhile, it should be noted that they are exceptions to this general rule. For instance, dieing declaration.