legal-terms
What is &quot;probity&quot;?
<p>I have found a number of definitions but none are satisfyingly congruent with the usages that I have seen in legal contexts including several times on here, which generally use it to describe a quality of evidence, even the definitions which I have found through search engines in specifically legal dictionaries.</p>

<p>The definitions you found online and in legal dictionaries are likely correct. I suspect you found something such as:</p>
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<p>The quality or condition of having strong moral principles; integrity, good character; honesty, decency. (Oxford English Dictionary)</p>
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<p>This is the definition corresponding to the most typical (what many would call the &quot;correct&quot;) use of the word. It is often used in phrases like &quot;<a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/#search/text=probity" rel="noreferrer">probity and fair dealing</a>.&quot;</p>
<p>If you have seen other uses, in relation to the quality of evidence, this is an occasional <em>misuse</em>. See Footnote 54 in Matthew Gourlay, et al., <a href="https://emond.ca/Emond/media/Sample-chapters/MCE_01_2nd.pdf" rel="noreferrer"><em>Modern Criminal Evidence</em>, Chapter 1</a>:</p>
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<p>There is an unfortunate trend in some recent judicial decisions of using the term &quot;probity&quot; as a synonym for probative value: see e.g. <em>R v Durham Regional Crime Stoppers Inc</em>, 2017 SCC 45, [2017] 2 SCR 157 at paras 43-47. &quot;Probity&quot; refers to moral uprightness and is not the noun form of the adjective &quot;probative.&quot; If a new coinage is required, &quot;probativity&quot; would be preferable.</p>
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