The case of In re Vinhnee, 2005 WL 3609376 (B.A.P. 9th Cir. Dec. 16, 2005) is the subject of an excellent article — Are More Stringent Rules for Authenticating Electronic Records Coming? With more and more records being stored (and filed) electronically by lawyers and businesses, the authentication of these documents will be very important.
The article states that –
For a "generally serviceable modern foundation," the court turned to Edward J. Imwinkelried, "Evidentiary Foundations" §4.03[2], which suggests the following 11-step foundation for authenticating computer records:
The business uses a computer.
The computer is reliable.
The business has developed a procedure for inserting data into the computer.
The procedure has built-in safeguards to ensure accuracy and identify errors.
The business keeps the computer in a good state of repair.
The witness had the computer read out certain data.
The witness used the proper procedures to obtain the readout.
The computer was in working order at the time the witness obtained the readout.
The witness recognizes the exhibit as the readout.
The witness explains how he or she recognizes the readout.
If the readout contains strange symbols or terms, the witness explains the meaning of the symbols or terms for the trier of fact.
Thanks to Day on Torts for the link.
On a totally different subject, the effort to split the Ninth Circuit has new life.