A Commentary on the Civil Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1997

This publication is an amended version of the text for a lecture given to the Law Society of Northern Ireland in Queen's University in March 2000.

The Civil Evidence (NI) Order 1997 makes hearsay evidence generally admissible in all civil proceedings, but requires the court to assess what weight, if any, is given to such evidence.

The author analyzes the detailed provisions of the Order in the context of the "Woolf" reforms and the proposals of the Civil Justice Review in Northern Ireland, as well as the Human Rights Act 1998.

This publication makes particular reference to the new notice provisions, the statutory guidelines for assessing weight, methods of challenging credibility, and the use which can now be made of previous consistent or inconsistent statements by witnesses.