Legal Notes

Public policy is one ground for excluding evidence even if it is relevant, similar to but not same as privilege as latter may be waived, disclosure of matters injurious to public or national interest raised suo moto by court even if no party raises, per Rogers v Home Secretary sources of police info judicially recognized […]

Derived from oral tradition or statements of deceased persons in respect of existence or non-existence of a fact relied on by virtue of no living witness to testify passed on from generation to generation per In Re Asere Stool; Nii Olai Amontia IV v Akotia Aworsia III. Adjeibi-Kojo v Bonsie Lord Denning method of testing

Res Gestae: four conditions; 1-Contemporaneity or spontaneity of statement, Woledzi v Akufo-Addo Cecilia-Koranteng Addow J contemporaneous event in law means took place same time as another or immediately after such that the two events can be considered as taking place at same time, Gen rule evidence in previous trial can’t be used as evidence of

Evidence of those who relate not to what they know but what they have heard from others as to what is said or written, and is inadmissible because the person making statement isn’t in court for veracity of statement or his person to be tested, per R v Abbey as the principal justification for exclusion.

Osei Yaw v Domfeh that where the evidence of a party is corroborated by his opponent whose evidence is uncorroborated, the court ought to accept the corroborated evidence as against the uncorroborated evidence. Evidence which supports or strengthens admitted evidence, must be independent affecting issue or confirm some material fact per Lord Reading CJ in

Person who gives evidence oral or sworn affidavit, be called by parties or suo moto by court, competent if may be called to give evidence and compellable if being competent may be compelled by court to do so, sovereigns and heads of states are competent but not compellable to give evidence,per S 61 oath or

S1 Judge-questions of law (whether a person has met the burden of producing evidence or has not, admissibility of evidence and construction of Act 323) question of fact (determination of a foreign law and in trials without jury)S2 Jury-questions of fact (but doesn’t preclude judge from summing up evidence to jury and commenting on weight

State v Fiadzo presumptive or circumstantial and presumption from said evidence must be inconsistent with innocence, if consistent with innocence than or and guilt conviction not sustainable, guilty knowledge is a matter of inference from facts and merits of case. A fact from which a court may infer, presume or deduce the existence or non-existence

Gen rule that if you want to get the contents of a written doc, proper way is to produce it if you can per MacDonnell v Evans and that evidence is admissible if it’s the best evidence. CL-party seeking to rely on content of doc must adduce primary evidence of those contents, per R v

Identification is process of satisfying tribunal of fact of characteristic feature of what party or witness put before court. Authentication which connotes relevance is process of proving something to be true or genuine, it is after exhibit has been identified that it will have to be authenticated, and after court decides on its admissibility. S