Thursday, October 24, 2013

Admitting Photograph Into Evidence

Admitting a photograph into evidence is fairly easy.  To me, any personal injury case or divorce case can be greatly enhanced with photos.  He said vs. she said does not do a lot for any fact finder when they cannot visualize the story.  All that is need to get the photograph into evidence is:

(1)  Show that the witness knows relevant facts about the scene or objects represented in the photo; and
(2)  That he or she can say that it correctly and accurately portrays those facts (or, as many of us say, “It is a true and accurate depiction …”).

Fortunately, long gone are the days of showing that the camera worked properly and such.  This is still an issue on getting voice recordings and such in though.  Biggest issue on these is normally laying the foundation of personal knowledge regarding what the pictures shows and that the witness has personal knowledge that it is accurate.

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