Relevance (law)

According to the notes of the Advisory Committee appointed to draft the Federal Rules of Evidence,

Relevancy is not an inherent characteristic of any item of evidence but exists only as a relation between an item of evidence and a matter properly provable in the case.[5]

The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit explains the concept of "matter properly provable" as follows:

The initial step in determining relevancy is therefore to identify the "matter properly provable." As Professor James explained in a highly-regarded article, '[t]o discover the relevancy of an offered item of evidence one must first discover to what proposition it is supposed to be relevant."[6]

Generally, relevant evidence is admissible.[7] However, relevant evidence is not admissible if prohibited by the Constitution, an Act of Congress, by the Federal Rules of Evidence, or by rules prescribed by the Supreme Court.[8] Under the Federal Rules of Evidence, relevant evidence may be excluded on the basis of enumerated grounds.[9]

Rule 402. General Admissibility of Relevant Evidence

Relevant evidence is admissible unless any of the following provides otherwise:

• the United States Constitution;
• a federal statute;
• these rules; or
• other rules prescribed by the Supreme Court.

Irrelevant evidence is not admissible.

Relevance is ordinarily a necessary condition, but not a sufficient condition, for the admissibility of evidence. For example, relevant evidence may be excluded if its tendency to prove or disprove a fact is heavily outweighed by the possibility that the evidence will prejudice or confuse the jury.

FRE 402 refers to relevant evidence as 'inadmissible' if 'otherwise provided by' several sources of law.[10] Yet, FRE 403 refers to 'exclusion of relevant' evidence.[11] It is clear that evidence excluded under FRE 403 is inadmissible. However, it is not clear that inadmissible evidence is considered 'excluded' within the meaning of the Federal Rules of Evidence.

Under Rule 403 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, relevant evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of one or more of the enumerated grounds for exclusion.[11] The grounds for exclusion are:

• unfair prejudice
• confusing the issues
• misleading the jury
• undue delay
• wasting time
• needlessly presenting cumulative evidence

In an exemplary hypothetical; if 100 witnesses saw the same accident, and would each give roughly the same description of the event, the testimony of each would be equally relevant, but it would be a waste of time or a needless presentation of cumulative evidence to have all 100 repeat the same facts at trial.

To preserve legal error for review, objections must be raised.[12] Often objections against the introduction of evidence are made on the basis of relevance. However, the rules and opinions demonstrate that relevant evidence includes a significant portion of typically offered evidence. Since objections are required to be specific and timely, merely objecting on the basis of relevance, without more, may prevent the review of legal error on appeal.[12][13] More particularly, making an objection based on “relevance” does not preserve an error based on Rule 403.[13] Cases that lack specific and timely objections are sometimes referred to as having "poor records" because errors made by the lower court may not be reviewed on appeal.

A variety of social policies operate to exclude relevant evidence. Thus, there are limitations on the use of evidence of liability insurance, subsequent remedial measures, settlement offers, and plea negotiations, mainly because it is thought that the use of such evidence discourages parties from carrying insurance, fixing hazardous conditions, offering to settle, and pleading guilty to crimes, respectively.

In 1970, the Supreme Court of Canada was concerned with exclusionary discretion within the judicial system. In R. v. Wray,[14] the term "probative value" is used to explain that "judges in criminal cases do not have a discretion to exclude evidence because of how it was obtained."[15]

"The trial judge's discretion to exclude admissible evidence does not extend beyond his duty to ensure that the minds of the jury will not be prejudiced by evidence of little probative value, but of great prejudicial effect. Exclusion of evidence on the ground that, although its probative value was unquestionable, it was obtained by methods which the judge considers to be unfair, has nothing to do with his duty to secure a fair trial for the accused."

— [14]

The sole discretion to exclude evidence is based on the weighing of prejudicial value and probative value. Where the material evidence is being considered for exclusion:

"...a judge must determine the value of the evidence based on reliability and the strength of the inference it led to, against the cost presented by such evidence, including things as diverse as the practicalities of its presentation, the fairness to the parties and to witnesses, and the potentially distorting effect the evidence can have on the outcome of the case."

— [16]

Judges may face the need to weigh the probative value versus the prejudicial impact in nearly any case. A part of this is symbolized by a weighing scale and represents justice.

As per Barwick CJ in Wilson,[22] "The fundamental rule governing the admissibility of evidence is that it be relevant. In every instance the proffered evidence must ultimately be brought to that touchstone."

The scheme of Chapter 3 of the Act deals with admissibility of evidence.[23] Evidence which is relevant is generally admissible, and evidence which is irrelevant is inadmissible.[23] Evidence is relevant if it is evidence which, if accepted, could rationally affect (directly or indirectly) the assessment of the probability of a fact in issue in the proceedings.[24] Since evidence that is relevant has the capability to affect the assessment of the probability of the existence of a fact in issue, it is "probative".[25] This determination is known as logical relevance. Logical relevance merely requires evidence have a logical connection to the facts in issue. But neither s 55 nor s 56 of the Act requires that evidence be probative to a particular degree for it to be admissible. Evidence that is of only some, even slight, probative value will be admissible, just as it is at common law.[26] Therefore, evidence is either relevant or it is not and if the evidence is not relevant then no further question arises about its admissibility.[27] However, logical relevance isn't sufficient to establish the potential admissibility of the evidence and is still possible for the evidence to be inadmissible. This determination is known as "legal relevance" as opposed to logical relevance and sets a demanding test for discretionary exclusion (but one that is not obligatory) where its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger that the evidence might be unfairly prejudicial.[28] Once the legal relevance of the evidence is established, the exclusionary principles and exceptions to those principles are also to be considered.[29]

The definitions of these types of evidence and how they may be used differ slightly among some the. Under Victoria's Evidence Act 2008:[30]

• Tendency evidence is evidence that allows the jury to reason that the accused had committed the crime before, has a propensity to do such a thing, and that it is likely that they did it again on the occasion in question.
• Coincidence evidence is evidence using the unlikelihood of two or more events occurring coincidentally in order to prove that a person did a particular act.

Judges have to determine whether these types of evidence, based on how the parties are looking to use the evidence; this determines which admissibility test applies, and what directions to give to the jury.[30]

John Stratton, NSW Deputy Senior Public Defender, opined at a 2008 legal conference that there was no clear dividing line between the two, although some cases had determined precedents for use. He thought that "the tendency and the coincidence principles should be regarded as alternative and overlapping avenues by which material may be introduced into evidence".[31]

Reliability considers the probative force of the evidence (the legal relevance), rather than the evidence's ability to affect the probability of the existence of a fact in issue (the logical relevance).[32]