Lessons · Accounting · handling evidence so that it survives
Handling evidence so that it survives
Evidence has to be obtained, recorded and stored in a way that can be described later: where it came from, who has held it since, and that it has not changed. Material that cannot be accounted for in that way may be true and may still be unusable.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
In beta. This lesson was written for Hone and has not yet been checked by a qualified accountant. Practice material, not professional advice. What that means.
What it is for
It is the difference between knowing and proving, and it is where cases are lost by people who were right. A document copied from a screen, with no note of when or by whom, proves nothing about the state of a system on the day that mattered, and the other side will say so.
How to think about it
Record the source and the date at the moment of obtaining, keep originals where possible, work from copies, and note every transfer. Do it as you go, because a chain reconstructed afterwards is exactly what a broken one looks like.
Worked example
Where it came from, recorded at the timeNot remembered later.
Who has held it sinceAn unbroken account.
That it has not changedOriginals kept, copies worked on.
True and unusable is a real outcomeAnd the commonest way a good case fails.
Your turn
Name what a reconstructed chain of custody looks like from outside.
A chain reconstructed afterwards looks exactly like a one
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Gathering first and documenting later, because the work feels more urgent than the paperwork. The paperwork is what converts the work into evidence, and it cannot be added convincingly once the moment has passed.