The polygraph in the Spanish judicial field

For a long time, there has been a great deal of controversy regarding whether or not the use of polygraphs is legal. In most parts of the world, the use of this test has no real validity. This includes Spain, since, in criminal terms, this test is not admitted by any court, so the polygraph in the Spanish judicial field is something that has to be taken into account.

However, this does not mean that these tests are not useful. polygraph can help in different ways to resolve a case. In this article we are going to touch a little more on the issue of the legality of the polygraph tests in Spain.

Is the use of polygraph legal in Spain?

The issue of the legality of the use of polygraph tests is highly contested. However, it is important to note that there is no regulation in place in the country.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that it is not regulated, polygraph results today have no legal validity. Although this has more to do with custom than actual use, this is still a problem.

While submitting evidence polygraph can not have a bearing on the judge's decision, it can be useful if justice is to be done. It can be used to conduct the investigation to find the relevant evidence for the case.

Why is a polygraph test not taken as truthful?

The fact that the results obtained from a polygraph test cannot be used as a basis for the evidence at trial is because it cannot be cross-checked by other professionals. In other words, even when the evidence is damning, as long as it is not supported by other evidence, the results have no legal validity.
Of course, this is not something new, but has been going on for a long time in this way. However, this does not mean that it cannot yield some vital research results.

In fact, in the police and investigative field, the use of polygraphs is quite common. For example, intelligence agencies, such as the CNI, may use this in order to conduct an investigation or to confirm a hypothesis.

However, although it is used for this purpose, it is not legally valid within the legal system. Of course, it also depends on the type of court in which the evidence is presented. For example, in the criminal field it is normal that it is not accepted, however, it may be better received in other courts.

It is very important to mention that, in these cases, it is the judge who has the final decision and decides whether to accept this as evidence or not. However, this will depend on the type of judge and the type of legal action being taken at the time.

Could evidence from a polygraph assessment be valid?

It is difficult to determine whether in the future such tests might start to gain validity in the legal system. However, it is important to mention that these polygraph systems are becoming more advanced and the results they provide are more accurate.

In this sense, it is likely that at some point they could be considered as valid evidence. Unfortunately, this is all speculation and we will have to wait and see whether or not it is possible that they could be considered legal.

In any case, polygraph evidence is increasingly used, both in the legal sector and in other sectors such as business, and its use has been spreading.