Dyer v Best

Facts

A witness could not fix the date of an event. He was allowed to look at a newspaper published at the time, which reported it, and to give the date from that.

Issue

Must the memory-refreshing document be one the witness himself made?

Held

Not always. A contemporary newspaper, used only to fix a date the witness then adopts, was allowed.

Principle

The document must still be contemporaneous, and it must be produced so that the other side can see it. It does not become proof of everything it contains.

Why it matters

The warning sits beside it. If cross-examination goes into parts of the document that were not used to refresh memory, those parts can become evidence.

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