competent evidence

In the legal justice system, the facts about a case that are admissible in courts of law, as well as convincing, reliable, and valid. Such information is to be distinguished from the opinions, guesses, or secondhand data offered by a professional expert witness. For example, an assessment by a social worker that an infant's bruises were probably the result of child abuse owing to a past history of similar events in the family would not be considered competent evidence. Eyewitness testimony by a competent observer of an act of child abuse would be considered competent evidence.