In many countries criminal and civil actions proceed when the only available evidence, or the main evidence, is memories. This often occurs in cases of 'historic' sexual abuse in which an adult's allegations are based on memories from childhood. Memory is not comparable to electronic recording media that keep an indiscriminate record of all the details they record. Memories are time-compressed fragmentary records of experience. Any account of a memory will feature forgotten details and gaps. Memories typically contain only a few highly specific details. The Guidelines on Memory and the Law, from the Research Board of the British Psychological Society, provides an accessible, widely agreed set of guidelines about human memory. It is certainly possible that a person could remember that he/she had been abused and be perfectly correct, while simultaneously having detailed memories that are wholly false; hence additional evidence is required when judging the truth of memory.