Any matter of fact that a party to a claim or action offers to provide to prove or disprove an issue in the case. The strongest type of evidence is that which provides direct proof of the truth of an assertion. At the other extreme is evidence that is merely consistent with an assertion but does not rule out other, contradictory assertions, and may be viewed as circumstantial evidence.

Latin for ‘a thing adjudicated’. A legal principle that once a matter is adjudged by a court having jurisdiction, it is finally decided and cannot be adjudicated again, except by way of an appeal.