The Admissibility of Demonstrative Evidence in Jury Trials: Applying the Principled Approach to the Law of Evidence

• Author: Barbara L. Legate
• Pages: 147-180



TheAdmissibilityof

DemonstrativeEvidence

inJuryTrials

ApplyingthePrincipledApproach

totheLawofEvidence

Barbara L. Legate*

What is the argument on the other side? Only this, that no case has been found

in which it has been done before. Thi s argument does not appeal to me in the

least. If we neve r do anything which has not been d one before, we shall never

get anywhere. The law will stand still whilst the rest of the world goes on; and

that will be bad for both.

DenningLJ

A. INTRODUCTION

NodoubtitwouldhavebeendicultforLordJusticeDenningtovisual-

izethe progress tobe madein the technologicalworldi nthe yodd

yearsthathavepassedsincehewrotethosewordsIntheeldofdemon-

strativeevidence innovativecou nselarer unning to keep upwith the

restofthe worldbutcant helawkeep upwiththem armedon lywith

thetoolscurrentlyatitsdisposal

Asdemonstrative evidencebecomes increasingly sophisticated and

expensivepred ictability in its admission is of great concern The pur-

poseof this article isto oera nswersto thequestionsthat oenari se

 Practisespers onalinjur ylitigationinLondonO ntariowithLegateAs sociates

 Packer v. Packer AllERCAat

BLL

whatare the limits of oral testimonyhow can demonstrative evidence

playarolein enhancing thetrier offactsabilitytoabsorbunderstand

andintegratetheevidencepresentedwhatisthelegalbasisuponwhich

thi sevide nceca nbeadduc edThe goali stomovet owards predic tabi lity 

intheacceptanceofdemonstrativeevidenceandensureitspositiveeect

uponthetrieroffactbaseduponsoundprinciplesofevidentiarylaw

Applying the principled approachto t he lawof evidence may

introduce predictability in t he admission of demonstrative evidence

Therecontinuestobemuchconfusiona ndinconsistencyintheapplica-

tionofthe lawatalllevelsOnehopesresorti ngtobasicprinciplesw ill

assistthosewishingtomakeuseofth iskindofevidencewhileoering

safeguardstoensureitisnotmisu sed

Thepowerandimportancetothelitigatorofdemonstrativeevidence

cannot be understated Wemust casto perceptions of how welear n

readingandlisteningandseektounderstandhowjurorslearnseeing

listening touchi ng reading experiencing in a v isual and interactive

worldThoseof us whowent toschoolwhen computerswere as large

asa classroom andlec tures combinedw ithtexts weret heonly means

ofcommunicationcannotassumet hereisanyt hingsuperioraboutt hat

methodoflearningorthatthereissometh ingmysticalanduntrust wor-

thy or inherently suspect about visua l learning The evidence is oth-

erwise Retentionof informat ionpresented both visuallyand orally is

greatlyen hanced overinformation presented only orallyUnderstand-

ingisenhancedapictureisworthathousandwordsForthosewhodo

jurytrialsitiscriticaltounderstandthatinthelastfortyyearsaention

spanshave declined fromover fourm inutesbefore arest orchangei s

required toa mere seventeenseconds Byt het imethisa rticle ispub-

lishednodoubtitwillbelessthanthatagainTheinuenceoftelevision

and the Internet are undeniably profound Consider forexa mplethe

amountofin formationcontained ononeweb pageandhowquick lyit

changesnewscasts withcrawlbars youngadultssiing atacomputer

withatelevisiononinthebackgroundiPodearplugdanglingfromone

eartextingallthewhile browsingtheweband ippingbetweenFace-

bookand MSN Thelitigatorwho ignorest hepower of demonstrative

evidencedoessoattheclientsperil

B WHATISTHEPRINCIPLEDAPPROACH

KatherineChalmersw rites

The Admissibility of Demonstrative Evidence in Jury Trials

Whathadbeenlostsightofoverthepastdecadesisthattherear eonly

afewverybasicprinciplest hatunderliealmosteveryr uleofevidence

andexceptiontothoser ulesTheonebasicr uleofevidenceofcourse

isthatifitisrelevantitisadmissibleThi sruleisbasedonthepri nci-

plethatthefunctionoflitigationisthesearchforthetruthEveryother

ruleorpr incipleofevidence isan exceptionto therelevance ruleand

these exceptions ar e themselves based on speci cpr inciples . . . the

tendencyhasbeenforth ecourtstoart iculatetheunderlyingpri nciple

itselfastheruleofevidencetobeappliedWerefertothisapproachas

theprincipledapproachtothelawofevidence

Itisthis principledapproachthat hasledas inthec aseofhearsay evi-

dencetotheadoptionofarulethatreliesonreliabilityandneces sity

The thesis of this paper is that a return to basic principles of evi-

denceis in orderto support with certaintytheintroduct ionof demon-

strativeevidence

Since rst writing this paper in a great deal of progress has

beenmadei nestablishi ngrules thatw illapplyto permitadm issionof

demonstrativeevidencea ndthe use ofillust rativeaidsWe havecome

sofarthatmorethanonelawyerhasexpressedtheviewt hatthefailure

tousedemonstrativeevidenceinanycomplicatedcaseapproachesneg-

ligenceAgreatdealofcaselawinparticu larinOntar iohasdeveloped

surroundingr ulesgoverningcha racterizationandadmi ssibilityunfor-

tunatelywithoutmuch analysisoft hetype ofevidencebeing adduced

andt he dierences between them aectingadmi ssibilitySome cases

Chilton v. Bell beingoneexampleweredecidedwithoutreferencetothe

developingcaselawwhichaddstotheconfusion

Notwithstandingafewmisstepsalongthewayanddespitealackof

clarityinthedenitionoftypesorcategoriesofdemonstrativeevidence

 KatherineCh almersTowardsaMorePrincipledApproacht otheLawofEvi-

dencePaperpresentedtotheAdvocate sSocietyCon ferenceToronto

unpu bli she d

 R. v. KhanSCRKhan

 OJNoatparaGenDivThecourtinChilton v. Bellordereda

mistrialforanu mberofreasonswhic hincludedthefactt hattheplainti scounsel

incorporatedvis ualaidsbydiagrama ndphotographswithnoass urancethat

theywouldbesuccessf ullyintroducedi nevidenceeventhoughth eissuewasnot

raisedbycouns elforthedefendantCoun selforthedefencehadse entheaidsand

madenoobjectiontoth emThecourtstatedt hatinajuryt rialdocument swill

seldomifeverbeintroducedina nopeningstate mentHoweverthecourtcitedno

caselawwithresp ecttoitsruli ng