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As various courts hear election-related cases across the country, some legal terms have been recurrent. One of such is ‘evidence’. In the course of discussing the just-concluded Atiku Abubakar/Peter Obi versus President Bola Tinubu case at the Supreme Court, for example, the word has been recurring – alongside appellant, defendant, motion, justice, learned etc. It is from one of such conversations I took a statement that birthed the question above.
So, is there any error in ‘All the evidences Atiku gave were rejected’?
There is a two-in-one error in it. ‘Evidence’ is an uncountable noun that should not be pluralised in the context. No matter the volume of the evidence Atiku or any other litigant takes to the court, all remains ‘evidence’ and not evidences. And once this is understood, the verb that follows it should also be singular, not plural. This means that there is a problem with the use of ‘evidences’ and ‘were’ in the expression:
All the evidences Atiku gave were rejected. (Wrong)
All the evidences Atiku gave was rejected. (Wrong)
All the evidence Atiku gave were rejected. (Wrong)
All the evidence Atiku gave was rejected. (Correct)
As it applies to some other uncountable nouns such as luggage, information and news, we can use ‘pieces of’ with ‘evidence’ to show volumes or plurality:
All the pieces of evidence were rejected.
Seven pieces of evidence were eventually considered by the court. (Correct)
To buttress the correct usage of the word, here is how Atiku, incidentally, put it on Monday when he addressed a press conference on the Supreme Court’s verdict: “We showed irrefutable evidence of gross irregularities, violence, and manipulations during the elections. We showed incontrovertible evidence that INEC violated the Electoral Act and deliberately sabotaged its own publicly announced processes and procedures in order to illegally declare Tinubu elected.” Note that he never said ‘irrefutable evidences’ or ‘incontrovertible evidences’’ Also, you can use adjectives with ‘evidence’, just as ‘a lot of’ and ‘much’ are also allowed. But ‘many’ and ‘several’ do not collocate with it.
This analysis should remind us about ‘counsel’, which, as a legal term, is a synonym for ‘lawyer’. It is also an uncountable noun, meaning that no matter how many people involved, the word rejects the plural marker ‘s’ as well as plural verbs:
Fifty counsels defended Tinubu at the tribunal. (Wrong)
Fifty counsel defended Tinubu at the tribunal. (Correct)
Lawyer, solicitor, learned friends are, however, countable:
Fifty lawyers defended Tinubu at the tribunal. (Correct)
Fifty solicitors are at the meeting. (Correct)
The lawyer appreciated the presence of his learned friends. (Correct)
Meanwhile, study the meanings of the following legal terms, taking note of their numbers. They are culled from the website of Franklin County Court of Common Pleas:
Action, case, suit, matter: A legal dispute brought into court for a hearing or trial.
Cause of action: The legal grounds on which a party to a lawsuit relies to get a verdict against an opponent.
Closing Argument: After all the evidence of a lawsuit is heard on both sides, the lawyers tell the jury what they think the evidence proves and why they think the jury should find in favour of their client. This is an “argument” or “summing up.” It is not evidence.
Court reporter: A court reporter is present during every trial. He or she is responsible for keeping the official record by recording every spoken word during the trial on a special machine called a stenograph.
Exhibits: Articles that are given to the jury to take to the jury room while deliberating, such as:
Issue: A disputed question of fact which you must decide.
Mistrial: An erroneous or invalid trial. A mistrial is usually declared because of an error in the proceeding or when there was a hung jury. Cases that end in a mistrial have to be tried again at a later date.
Settlement: The conclusion of a legal matter; a compromised agreement between opposing parties in a civil suit before judgment is made, eliminating the need for a judge or jury to resolve the conflict.
Testimony: Any statement made by a witness under oath in a legal proceeding.
Transcript: The official record of proceedings in a trial or hearing, which is kept by the court reporter.
Verdict: The formal decision made by a judge or jury regarding the outcome of a case.

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