The critical point here is that they have not been challenged in court.
It has been suggested by some specialists in the field (but of course I
couldn't possibly comment)that this may be due to woeful ignorance of
the issues amongst many lawyers who only see the paper product and are
themselves unaware of its provenance.
Of course paper prints from scanned images are used in court all the
time, but primarily in civil cases where the burden of proof is lower.
The Civil Evidence Act 1995 specifically provided for their admission.
In civil cases the lawyers involved tend to agree the evidence and under
those circumstances the Court is unlikely to interfere. I suspect that
the larger the sums involved, the more likely it is that savvy lawyers
will begin to question the validity of electronically captured documents
as evidence unless the requires systemic controls - PD 0008 - can be
demonstrated. Migration issues are also important in maintaining
validity.
I know from experience that the prosecuting authorities were averse to
relying on images of cheques in criminal cases because the image could
not be physically tested for alteration etc. but images of the same
cheques would have been acceptable to the civil courts in a civil suit.
Peter Emmerson
Director
Emmerson Consulting Limited
47a Salisbury Road
Harpenden
Hertfordshire AL5 5AR
Phone 01582 769842
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-----Original Message-----
From: The UK Records Management mailing list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Fresko Marc
Sent: 24 February 2003 13:56
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Paperless office...
Clare, you wrote:
> [...] I have a feeling that problems have not surfaced yet because
> there's an absence so far of cases in which scanned documents
> have been used as evidence. The Prof of Internet Law (Lars
> Davies) I mentioned actually said that lawyers were "rubbing
> their hands in glee" waiting for such cases to arise."
I seriously doubt that no such cases have arisen. I am reasonably
confident
that printed images of scanned documents are routinely presented as
evidence, that they are not challenged, and that cases are won or lost
on
the basis of the printed images having "full" evidential weight. I
can't
prove that assertion, for obvious reasons; but a short consideration of
teh
sheer number of building societies, banks and mortgage providers,
insurers,
Council housing benefit departments and Council Tax departments which
now
rely on scanned images (i.e. MOST of them) suggests pretty convincingly
that
such cases must now be routine.
If I'm right, by the way, the expectant lawyers will have rubbed their
hands
for so long that they will have worn their hands to a frazzle before
they
make a fortune from this!
Marc Fresko
EDM & ERM Consulting Services Director
Cornwell Management Consultants plc
Home Barn Court, The Street
Effingham, Surrey
KT24 5LG
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