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Lost & destroyed evidence
Justice cannot test what has been lost, altered, or erased
Physical evidence, recordings, digital data, messages, files, and biological samples may be lost through negligence or intentionally destroyed, overwritten, altered, or allowed to expire. The legal significance depends on control, notice, relevance, intent, prejudice, and the law governing preservation.
What failure can look like
- Evidence disappears after a preservation request, complaint, arrest, lawsuit, or notice of likely litigation
- Retention policies applied inconsistently or automatic deletion allowed to continue despite a known dispute
- Missing chain-of-custody entries, unexplained edits, incomplete exports, or substituted summaries instead of originals
Protect the record
Send lawful preservation requests promptly and retain copies with delivery proof. Preserve metadata, audit logs, retention policies, inventories, chain-of-custody records, notices of destruction, backup information, and testimony about who controlled the material. Seek counsel before attempting independent access or recovery.