Litigation Law

Circumstantial Evidence

Evidence that doesn't directly prove a fact but allows the court to infer it from a chain of connected circumstances.

Unlike direct evidence (such as an eyewitness account), circumstantial evidence relies on the court connecting a series of established facts to reasonably infer the guilt of the accused — for instance, motive, opportunity, and conduct after the event, taken together.

Courts require that such a chain of circumstances be complete and point unerringly to the guilt of the accused, excluding any reasonable possibility of innocence, before a conviction can rest on it alone.

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