Priestley 11 · Usually third year
Evidence for Australian law students
Evidence is the subject where the statute is the answer and the cases tell you what the statute means. Most Australian jurisdictions now run a uniform Evidence Act, and the exam is usually a transcript-style problem asking whether a particular piece of evidence gets in and on what basis.
What the subject covers
- Relevance and admissibility under the uniform Evidence Acts
- The hearsay rule and its exceptions
- Opinion evidence, including expert opinion
- Tendency and coincidence evidence
- Credibility, and the rules on cross-examination
- Privilege, including client legal privilege
- The discretionary and mandatory exclusions, and standards of proof
Topic coverage varies between law schools and between jurisdictions. Your subject guide is the one that counts.
Cases you will meet in an Australian Evidence course
Three decisions that turn up in Evidence across Australian law schools. Some of them are English decisions that Australian courses still teach as core authority, so this is a list of what you will be taught rather than a list of Australian judgments. Treat it as a starting point rather than a reading list. Your course sets its own, and it is the one that counts.
Browne v Dunn
(1893) 6 R 67
The rule about putting your case to a witness in cross-examination.
Papakosmas v The Queen
(1999) 196 CLR 297
How the uniform Evidence Act changed the common law position on complaint evidence.
IMM v The Queen
(2016) 257 CLR 300
Assessing probative value, and the approach to reliability at the admissibility stage.
How the subject is assessed
Evidence problems are usually piece-by-piece: for each item, is it relevant, does an exclusionary rule apply, does an exception apply, and is there a discretion to exclude. The exam is open book at most schools and unforgiving on time.
Using CaseSharp for Evidence
Problem questions
Work item by item and keep the section number attached to each step. Sharp answers with the authorities attached, and every citation opens the judgment at the paragraph.
Case notes
Evidence case notes are usually about how an appellate court read a section. A brief keeps the construction point separate from the facts of the trial.
AGLC4 essays
The uniform Acts are named differently in each jurisdiction, and getting that wrong in a footnote is an easy mark to lose. The generator returns full form and short form with pinpoints.
Exam scaffolds
A decision-tree scaffold per category of evidence works better than notes here. Check the citing cases for each authority on it before the exam.
CaseSharp is a research and study tool. It does not write your problem question answer or your research essay. Every substantive output carries a human-review notice, and where there is no authority to support an answer, Sharp says so instead of inventing a case to fill the gap.
Try it on a Evidence question
Create a free account and run a Evidence query like the one below, so you can see what comes back before you decide anything.
tendency and coincidence evidence probative value
73,000 audited Australian decisions, current to the end of April 2026.