How do you present evidence in court?
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How do you present evidence in court?
I was pulled over in Illinois for ‘improper lane usage’ because I swerved a
little bit to the left into an usused left turn lane to avoid a marked pothole
by the city in which I received the ticket. The officer accuses me of being on
my phone which I wasn’t and says that is why I swerved. I have my phone
records which show that calls, texts, and data were all unused during the time
I was pulled over. I also got the video from the police department in which you
can clearly see the pothole as the police officer’s dashcam shakes when he
drives into it. I also went back and got photos of the pothole and it is marked
by the city for what I assuming is to be fixed. I went to court today, but the
public prosecutor told me there is a certain way I have to do it for the
evidence to be introduced in court so I asked for an extension and was granted.
I was wondering how can I introduce the video, phone records, and pictures of
the scene during the trial?
Asked on July 5, 2017 under General Practice, Illinois
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
What you neeed to do is to hire a lawyer to represent you: the lawyer knows the rules of court and evidence, and how to present evidence in court.
If you insist on doing this yourself, which is NOT recommended, the idea is that all evidence must be authenticated by the person who took or generated it. You would need to subpoena the officer to testify about the dashcam video; you can testify yourself about the photos you personally took; you would likely need a phone company representative to testify about how the phone records are created, what they mean, and their accuracy.
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