Court & Hearings

Evidence Anything used to show that something is true is anything that is used as proof during a trial When the issues of a case are heard in court and decided by a judge or jury . This can include testimony Evidence given orally by witnesses from witnesses and physical objects like papers or items of clothing. The judge always makes the final decision as to whether evidence gets to be used in court, or not. Before any evidence can be used in court, it has to follow the rules of evidence. Every state has its own set of rules of evidence. All of the Illinois rules of evidence are available online at the Illinois court website. This will give a basic overview of some of the major rules of evidence in Illinois. 

Note: If you have evidence on your phone, like pictures or text messages, transfer it to a physical format, like a printout or USB drive, before your court date. Many courts don't allow phones in the courtroom. Even if phones are allowed, you may not be able to present evidence from them. The judge will need the evidence in a format that can be reviewed and kept on file, so be sure to bring a physical copy with the information you want the judge to see.

Relevance

One of the most basic rules of evidence is that all evidence has to be relevant to the case. For evidence to be relevant, it has to help prove or disprove something that is an issue in the case. If evidence is not relevant and related to the case, it cannot be used in court. For example, say Lucy is charged with stealing makeup from the store. Evidence that more makeup is stolen than any other item in the store would not be relevant because it does not relate to Lucy's case. However, evidence that Lucy has the same kind of makeup that was stolen would be relevant because it relates directly to Lucy's case. 

Foundation

Even if the evidence is relevant, before it can be used in court there still has to be some proof that the evidence is what it is claimed to be. Proving that the evidence is what it is being claimed to be is called "laying the foundation." If there is no foundation for the evidence, then it can probably not be used in court. A foundation can be given through many different methods. The two most common are using a witness A person who answers questions in court under oath with knowledge of the evidence or using an expert. 

Some evidence can lay a foundation for itself without any extra proof needed. Some examples of evidence that does not need extra proof to set a foundation include:

• Newspapers;
• Certified copies of public records;
• Public documents under seal; and
• Foreign public documents. 

Hearsay and its exceptions

Hearsay A statement made outside the courtroom and used in court to show something is true is one of the most used rules of evidence. It is also one of the more confusing rules of evidence. Hearsay is any statement that was made out of court, that is now repeated in court by anyone other than the person who made the statement, to prove the truth of the matter asserted. If a statement is considered hearsay, then it cannot be used in court. The idea behind the hearsay rule is that it would be better if the person who made the original statement could be in court to talk about it, then having someone who overheard the statement talk about it in court. For a statement to be considered hearsay, it has to: 

• Be made out of court; 
• Be repeated in court by someone who did not make the statement; and
• Be used in court to prove what is said in the statement. 

Example of hearsay

Here is an example of how the hearsay rule works. At lunch, John tells Tim "the sky is blue." Now, there is a court case and Tim wants to tell the court that John told him that "the sky is blue." First, you have to see if the statement was made out of court. Here, the statement was made out of court, because it was made at lunch.

Next, you have to see who is repeating the statement to the court. Here, Tim is repeating the statement to the court. John made the statement over lunch, so Tim is not the person who made the original statement. 

Finally, you have to see if the statement is being used in court to prove what is said in it. Here, if the statement is being used to prove that the sky is blue, then it is considered to be hearsay. If it is being used for any other purpose (to prove that it was not raining), then it would probably not be hearsay. 

Exceptions to hearsay

There are lots of exceptions to the hearsay rule. If something is hearsay, but it fits in one of the exceptions then it can be used in court. Some of the major exceptions to the hearsay rule include:

• Excited utterances;
• Statements made to get medical treatment; and
• Statements about mental or physical condition. 

All of the exceptions can be found in rule 803 and rule 804. These rules list all of the recognized exceptions.  

Excited utterance

An excited utterance is any statement made about a startling event, right after experiencing the startling event. For example, if you see a car crash and quickly say "that red car ran right into that bus," that statement would probably be an excited utterance. As long as the person repeating your statement in court actually heard you say it, then it would be able to be used under the excited utterance exception. 

Statements for medical treatment

When someone talks about their symptoms to receive medical treatment, their statements can usually be used in court. The reason for this exception is that people do not usually lie when they are talking to medical people to receive treatment. 

Statements about mental or physical condition

Statements made about your own mental or physical condition can be used in court. This means that statements made by somebody about their mental or physical condition at the time of making the statement can be used in court. For example, if Lucy tells Becky that "I feel like I am going crazy lately," Becky can testify To answer questions under oath that Lucy "felt like she was going crazy lately." Even though Becky's statement would be hearsay, it could still be used in court because it fits into the mental or physical condition exception. 

Character evidence

Evidence about the character of someone accused of a crime can not usually be used in court. If you try to use evidence of someone's character traits to show that they acted in a way related to their character traits, then this evidence cannot be used in court. For example, you cannot prove that someone acted lazy, by using evidence that they are a lazy person. 

Who can testify in court?

Everyone is considered to be qualified to testify in court. However, a witness can only testify about things that they have personal knowledge of. Personal knowledge means that you have experienced or you saw what you are going to testify about. For example, if you saw a car crash, you would have personal knowledge of that car crash. 

Impeaching a witness

Impeaching a witness means challenging the credibility of the witness. A witness's credibility is how believable or trustworthy they should be considered by the jury. Any party A person or business involved in a court case in a role like plaintiff, petitioner, defendant, respondent, or intervenor. involved in a case can attack the credibility of a witness. One way to attack the credibility of a witness is to attack the witness's trustworthiness. The rules of evidence allow for reputation or opinion evidence about the truthfulness of the witness to be used when trying to impeach a witness. The reputation or opinion evidence can only be about the truthfulness or untruthfulness of the witness. 

Evidence that the witness was convicted of a crime can also sometimes be used to attack the credibility of a witness. Evidence that a witness was convicted of a crime can only be used if the crime they were convicted of:

• Can be punished by death or imprisonment in excess of one year or
• Involved dishonesty or a false statement (fraud The deception of someone(s) with intent to cause damage (not including  forgeries and counterfeiting). , shoplifting The theft of goods from a retail store , etc.)

In either scenario, evidence of this crime can only be used if ten years have not passed since the date of the conviction When someone is declared guilty of a crime by a court or the date of the release from confinement, whichever is later.