Evidence and Legal Procedure

1. Admissibility of Evidence
   1. General Principles
      1. Definition
         1. What constitutes admissibility
         2. Overview of legal criteria for admissibility
      2. Purpose
         1. Ensuring fair trials
         2. Facilitating accurate verdicts
   2. Relevance
      1. Relationship to case facts
         1. Necessity for evidence to affect the likelihood of fact
         2. Rules governing relevance
      2. Materiality
         1. Importance of evidence to the issues at hand
         2. Distinction between material and immaterial evidence
   3. Reliability
      1. Credibility
         1. Assessing the trustworthiness of evidence
         2. Factors influencing evidence credibility
      2. Scientific and expert evidence reliability
         1. Standards for scientific testimony
         2. Daubert standard and Frye test
   4. Competence
      1. Legal standards
         1. Competence requirements in legal contexts
         2. Distinctions between admissible and competent evidence
      2. Witness competence
         1. Criteria for witness eligibility
         2. Understanding witness capacity and bias
   5. Hearsay Rule
      1. Definition
         1. Explanation of hearsay
         2. Importance in limiting indirect testimony
      2. Exceptions
         1. Situations where hearsay is permitted
         2. Common exceptions, including present sense impressions, excited utterance, and declarations against interest
      3. Purpose of exceptions
         1. Balancing evidence reliability with trial fairness
   6. Privilege
      1. Legal protections
         1. Importance of privilege in protecting confidential communications
      2. Types of privilege
         1. Attorney-client privilege
            1. Safeguarding attorney-client communications
            2. Limitations and scope
         2. Doctor-patient privilege
            1. Protecting medical confidentiality
            2. Exceptions in legal proceedings
         3. Spousal privilege
            1. Communication protections between spouses
            2. Situations where privilege is waived
   7. Authentication
      1. Verification process
         1. Establishing evidence authenticity
         2. Methods of authentication, including testimonial evidence and expert opinions
      2. Challenges to authenticity
         1. Common disputes over evidence authenticity
         2. Techniques for challenging authentication
   8. Chain of Custody
      1. Importance
         1. Maintaining evidence integrity from collection to presentation
      2. Documentation requirements
         1. Detailed record keeping
         2. Significance of custody logs in establishing reliability
   9. Exclusionary Rules
      1. Exclusion of inadmissible evidence
         1. Grounds for evidence exclusion
         2. Implications of the exclusionary rule on trial outcomes
      2. Suppression motions
         1. Procedures for excluding evidence pre-trial
         2. Legal standards and case examples