Competent evidence is the evidence which is legally admissible. Competent evidence tends to prove the matter in dispute. For example; in a murder trial, competent evidence might include the murder weapon with the defendant's fingerprints on it.
In Elias-Clavet v. Board of Review, the Rhode Island Supreme Court defined legally competent evidence as “relevant evidence that a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion, and means an amount more than a scintilla but less than a preponderance”.
Compare: incompetent evidence
[Last updated in August of 2022 by the Wex Definitions Team]