you are here: > Asia Union Judicial Code > Article 85 
 
15. General principles of Criminal trial
 
  Article 85-Evidence objection  
85.1 Evidence objection  
  The right to object to certain evidence presented before the court is an essential adversarial right of both prosecution and defense attorneys.  
  To ensure the fair and proper conduct of such objections and the function of the court, the following guidelines and limits are set.  
85.2 Limits of objection  
  An objection may be raised only if it relates to one of the following categories of legitimate objection:  
  (i) Relevance- that the evidence or testimony is not directly relevant to the primary facts of the case  
  (ii) Hearsay- that the evidence/testimony is third party (hearsay) and not directly witnessed;  
  (iii) Opinion- that the evidence/testimony is opinion, not fact and that the witness is not called before the court to give an expert opinion;  
  (iv) Unsupported character/credibility attack- that the opposing attorney has stated/implied a character/credibility attack on the witness for which no supporting evidence has yet been presented (excluding non permitted behaviour by the witness);  
  (v) Illegally obtained- that the information is illegally obtained.  
85.3 Objection method  
  To object, an attorney must stand from their position and state to the judge "I object", followed by the primary relevance eg "Relevance".  
  The judge must then call the witness or person speaking to cease for a moment, until they judge the objection. If the objection is sustained, then the section of testimony or evidence presented shall be stricken from the record and the jury may not deliberate on that testimony.  
  If the motion is denied, a strike shall be awarded to the attorney who made the objection and the court will proceed.  
85.4 Six strike rule  
  To prevent attorney's from using the objection method as a tactical means of disrupting the opposing case and in turn disrupting the proper function of the court, the six strike rule shall be in force.  
  The six strike rule essentially states that an attorney upon receiving six denial motions in one day of evidence shall not be permitted to make any further objection motions during the day of court proceedings. Should the attorney further object they shall be in contempt of court.  
  The enforcement of the six strike rule shall in no way invalidate the presentation of evidence, nor be used as a basis of an appeal.  
     
     
     
     
     
 
 

Copyright © 1999-2007 Asia-Union.Org. All rights reserved.