You-Said-I-Said

One tends to attribute a special authenticity to certain documents such as affidavits, dockets, clinical notes, accident reports, press releases, statements, company letters, and so on. But where people are corrupt -- and they often are -- such documents may be worth no more than you-said-I-said -- except for the fact that there is a higher risk of being caught out if it's on paper. The ancient Romans already had a term for something like it: argumentum ad verecundiam. In the course of ministry, I have encountered all of the above which were not what they seemed.