Evidence stripping is the intentional or unintentional destruction, alteration, withholding, or concealment of evidence in a legal dispute. It can lead to negative implications and legal consequences, including criminal prosecution and further civil litigation. It can alter the outcome of a legal hearing and be grounds for further legal action.
Evidence stripping is the destruction, alteration, withholding, or concealment of evidence by a party to a legal dispute. This can be done intentionally, in bad faith, or it can simply be an oversight by one of the parties involved in the legal proceeding. Intentional dispossession can lead to legal consequences against the party who committed the action, including criminal prosecution and further civil litigation. The stripping of evidence can also often lead to a negative implication against the responsible party, which can be just as damaging as the evidence itself may have been.
Whether done to intentionally mislead those involved in a legal proceeding, or simply as an oversight, stripping of evidence typically serves to alter the potential outcome of a legal hearing. For example, in a civil suit in which someone sues the maker of a coffee pot that overheated and exploded, burning the person, the plaintiff may have disposed of the coffee pot. Since this coffee pot would have been important evidence in the hearing, the disposal of the device would be considered evidence stripping. Even if this was not done in bad faith, and was just an oversight by the actor, it can lead to several negative consequences.
Among the major consequences of the stripping of evidence is the granting of negative implications against the person. This means that the defense in the example above can legally claim that plaintiff must have purposely disposed of the coffee pot and imply that this was because the coffee pot did not explode, using this notion to discredit the plaintiff’s claim. The defendant may also ask for the case to be dismissed on the grounds that he is unable to adequately defend himself against a lawsuit as the element cannot be fully considered. In these types of cases, the spoliation of evidence could easily result in the plaintiff losing the case without further consideration.
Stripping of evidence can also be grounds for further legal action against a person, both criminal and civil. Someone who destroys important legal evidence in a criminal investigation can be prosecuted under criminal codes for tampering with evidence and interfering with an investigation. There are also civil laws in some areas that allow a party involved in a case where abuse has occurred to bring a lawsuit against the person or company responsible for the dispossession. However, this depends on the statutes of a country or region and such offenses may not always be practicable.
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