Digital Evidence, 3rd Edition

Digital Evidence, 3rd Edition offers a comprehensive and current examination of the legal principles and practical challenges surrounding digital evidence in Canada. Authors Gerald Chan and Justice Susan Magotiaux draw on extensive expertise to explain foundational concepts and provide concrete guidance for using and responding to digital evidence at every stage of a criminal proceeding. For this third edition, Lindsay Board (defence, Daniel Brown Law LLP) and Rebecca De Filippis (crown) have been brought on as co-authors in order to enhance practicality and provide additional balance between crown and defence perspectives.

This text is designed to equip criminal practitioners with an understanding of the procedural, tactical, and strategic elements of gathering, admitting, and presenting digital evidence. Coverage includes the full scope of digital evidence issues, including privacy rights, search and seizure of data, private communications, production orders, admissibility and authentication, disclosure obligations, and effective courtroom presentation. With two new chapters, Preparing for Trial and Artificial Intelligence, practitioners will learn to navigate trial-readiness, and the emerging technologies reshaping investigative and evidentiary landscapes.

Practical, authoritative, and grounded in the realities of modern criminal practice, this text is an essential resource for practitioners seeking to navigate the evolving law and practice of digital evidence in Canada.