Practical Evidence in Civil Cases

Cases in court are contests that turn on what can be proved or not. Judges have no special wisdom that gives them the ability to look at witnesses and divine whether they are speaking the truth. Judges follow established methods to decide the facts looking at probabilities and inconsistencies, credibility and interests to serve, sufficiency and reliability of evidence. They also seek to apply "common sense", bearing in mind that sense is not always common, and there's the issue of whose common sense should be applied. It is in this context that evidence becomes crucially important. Getting evidence in and out is the lawyer's challenge. This short book is intended to be a guide to evidence, in a practical way, for new lawyers as they navigate the civil process in their early days in court.