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Chain of custody (CoC), in legal contexts, is the chronological documentation or paper trail that records the sequence of custody, control, transfer, analysis, and disposition of materials, including physical or electronic evidence.
The reduction in the handling of the original evidence lessens the likelihood of deliberate tampering or accidental contamination and reduces chain of custody requirements and overheads. While the chain of custody stops with the presentation, accountability and responsibility remain until the evidence is disposed of.
Chain of custody is an equivalent term used in law, especially for evidence in criminal or commercial cases. Software provenance encompasses the origin of software and its licensing terms. For example, when incorporating a free, open source or proprietary software component in an application, one may wish to understand its provenance to ensure ...
First, a witness can testify as to the chain of custody through which the evidence passed from the time of the discovery up until the trial. Second, the evidence can be authenticated by the opinion of an expert witness examining the evidence to determine if it has all of the properties that it would be expected to have if it were authentic.
Therefore, establishing a clear chain of custody and demonstrating that the evidence presented is unchanged from its original state is crucial. To address this issue, commercial software technology solutions have been developed to preserve digital evidence in its original form and authenticate it for admissibility in court disputes.
The chain of custody can be less stringent when dealing with property which has a unique identifying feature like a serial number. In such a case, the physical security becomes the main concern of the person recovering the item. Such security is normally achieved by booking the item into a central evidence room.
Prior consistent statements and prior inconsistent statements, in the law of evidence, occur where a witness, testifying at trial, makes a statement that is either consistent or inconsistent, respectively, with a previous statement given at an earlier time such as during a discovery, interview, or interrogation.
If the evidence is documentary, the party proffering the evidence must be able to show that it is authentic, and must be able to demonstrate the chain of custody from the original author to the present holder. The trial judge performs a "gatekeeping" role in excluding unreliable testimony.