Last week I posted a blog that commented on the surprising difficulties I faced this month having vehicle dash and bumper camera video evidence admitted as defense into a local Millville traffic court case.
I’ve also been exposed to a number of cases in various courts (many mentioned in past blog posts) where regulators and law enforcement improperly used electronic media content from social media in prosecutions. On the other side, I see just as many situations where the legal process ignores relevant video evidence, It seems to be a ‘wild west’ scenario with lack of standards, case procedures, and lack of judicial clarity on the potential problem issues.
Last night I attended a three hour legal procedures class on the rules of evidence as they apply to federal tax court. It’s been decades since I had this training in law school and of course much has changed. The professor discussed the difficulties getting audio, video and other electronic media admitted as evidence, even with tax court’s more formalized structure.
I conclude that our struggles with video evidence are far from over and that our courts have a long way to go to be able to authenticate and admit such evidence into cases.