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Location:
Brisbane
Registered:
February 2003
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Re: Email Validity in Legal Proceedings?
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Fri, 28 January 2005 02:24
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resources on the web:
commonwealth act:
<http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/disp.pl/au/legis /act/consol%5fact/ea197180/?query=title+%28+%22com monwealth+evidence%22+%29>
see section 7 on Documents produced by computers
most state evidence and interpretation acts are similar to the feds.
oznetlaw
<http://www.oznetlaw.net>
factsheets and searchable
from <http://www.oznetlaw.net/facts.asp?action=content&a mp;a mp;categoryid=228>
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9. Admissibility of electronic documents as evidence
Commonwealth evidence legislation applies in all Federal Courts and extends to Commonwealth records. A document includes any copy, reproduction or duplicate and includes any part of such document, copy, reproduction or duplicate.(18)
A party may give evidence in court by tendering the original of a document. In courts governed by the Commonwealth Evidence Act, where the document is an article or thing on which information is stored and cannot be used unless a device is used to retrieve, produce or collate it, the relevant document produced by that device is admissible (eg computer output read from a CD).(19)
Documents comprising business records (including electronic records) are admissible provided the fact asserted in the document is made either by a person who had (or is reasonably supposed to have had) personal knowledge of the fact or, made on the basis of information supplied directly or indirectly by such a person.(20)
A fact contained in a document that is a record of a message transmitted by electronic mail or by a fax, telegram, lettergram or telex is admissible. It is uncertain if this provision extends to internet documents such as Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML) forms, TCP / IP log data and other digital formats.(21)
A document produced by a device or process is presumed to be authentic unless other evidence suggests the device or process was not working properly at the time of producing the document. For example, a document produced by a computer is presumed to be an authentic copy of an electronic record in the absence of evidence suggesting the computer was not working properly at the time of producing the document.(22) Website operators should keep evidence that documents produced by computer have been accurately and validly produced in case such documents are impugned by the other party tendering evidence of computer malfunction.
The evidence legislation of the States and Territories generally facilitates the admission of electronic records into evidence in court proceedings, however, variations exist in relation to admissibility and weight in certain cases.
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institute of criminology (Federal govt)
<http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/htcb/htcb004.ht ml>
Standards Australia, HB 171-2003 : Guidelines for the management of IT evidence
<buyware>
international discussion of HB1711-2003
<http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/docume nts/APCITY/UNPAN016411.pdf>
Recent WA discussion on the review of th Evidence Act
<http://www.lrc.justice.wa.gov.au/RevCCJS-p92/final report/finalreporthtml/ch20evidence.html>
Auscert conference (coming up in may)
<http://conference.auscert.org.au/conf2005/abstract s.php>
scrolldown to paper titled 'AFP Case Studies - Absent Security'
unfortunately not proceedings are available - not surprising as conference has not been held.
query: is this a criminal case (have you been charged by a government or court agency) or have made a complaint to an investigative agency that's not the police or AFP? or a civil matter which you are considering litigating?
[Updated on: Fri, 28 January 2005 02:29]
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