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Home > Law > Law glossary > Law glossary
Previous statements
Last modified: Thu Feb 23 16:37:37 2006
It frequently happens that a court hearing takes place some time after the
events under consideration. By the time of the hearing, the witness may already
have written an account of the events, or made notes, or given a formal
statement to the police. The question that then arises is what evidential
value these notes or statement have. Usually the use of previous
statements arises in one of the following contexts.
A witness may wish to refer to he his own earlier statement to
refresh his memory before or during his testimony (see WitnessRefreshingMemory)
A witness may wish to draw attention to the similarity between his oral
testimony and the earlier statement in order to bolster his
credibility (see PreviousConsistentStatement)
During cross-examination, council may wish to adduce a previous statement
as evidence to rebut recent fabrication (see PreviousInconsistentStatement)
EvidenceLaw
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