Unintended Consequences: Digital Evidence in Our Legal System

The legal and judicial communities have minimal, if any, background necessary to understand the nature of digital evidence and use it appropriately. Given accumulated examples of egregious outcomes resulting from this condition, the authors conclude that no less than the credibility of the justice system is at stake if we, as a technical community, sit idly by. Examples of projects at the University of Washington designed to change this picture seed a discussion the authors wish to encourage among the readership about what can be done to change this situation.