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Authentication (FRE 901)

Definition

The US requirement that a party offering evidence produce sufficient proof to support a finding that the item is what they claim. For digital multimedia, this means establishing the reliability of the recording system and the integrity of the chain of custody.

Related terms

CSI effect
The tendency of jurors, shaped by television forensic dramas, to have unrealistic expectations of forensic evidence quality and to either over-weight clear...
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The US federal evidentiary standard (Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, 1993) requiring that expert testimony be based on scientifically valid methods with...
Expert's duty to the court
In most adversarial jurisdictions, an expert witness's primary duty is to the court, not to the party that retained them. This means...
Frye standard
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PACE Section 78
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