Wikipedia
Chain of custody (CoC), in legal contexts, is the chronological documentation or paper trail that records the sequence of custody, control, transfer, analysis, and disposition of physical or electronic evidence Of particular importance in criminal cases, the concept is also applied in civil litigation—and sometimes more broadly in drug testing of athletes, and in supply chain management, eg to improve the traceability of food products, or to provide assurances that wood products originate from sustainably managed forests It is often a tedious process that has been required for evidence to be shown legally in court Now however, with new portable technology that allows accurate laboratory quality results from the scene of the crime, the chain of custody is often much shorter which means evidence can be processed for court much faster
Chain_of_custody - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia