COMM 341: Relevance
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UVA Notes > COMM 341 > COMM 341: Relevance
Plaintiff controls materiality, and materiality controls evidence
Contents |
Why it's important
- If evidence is revelant > it comes in > it could affect the result
- If evidence is not > it stays out> it does NOT affect the result
Defination
1. Logical relevance
- Evidence offered at trial is logically relevant if & only if it tends to prove or disprove something which is material.
- Material refers to the cause of action, relevance refers to evidence
- Evidence is not relevent because insanity is not MATERIAL (not in cause of action).
- See relevance sheet - get a copy from Semira
Useful term: Dispositive
- Evidence is dispositive if, standing by itself, it proves or disproves one of the relevance numbers (without the need of ANY other evidence). It "disposes of" that number. AKA - "smoking gun".
- Dispositive is a small, rare subset of relevance - most evidence is NOT dispositive
2. Legal relevance
- For evidence to come in, it must be both logically and legally relevant
- Evidence offered at trial is legally relevant if & only if its tendency to prove or disprove something which is material outweighs its tendency to cause prejudice.
- Hitman evidence - nickname implies guilt
