Legal Admissibility

Are Scanned Documents Legally Admissible in Court?

This is a question we are asked regularly, to answer the question we must refer to the guidance given by The British Standards Institute and Companies House.

Companies House made this statement in relation to the way information they hold may be used in evidence:

"If a document is admissible in evidence, then an electronic image of that document may be treated as secondary evidence in the same manner as a photocopy or a microfiche image. It will be subject to the provisions regarding authentication contained in the Civil Evidence Act 1995 in England and Wales and the Civil Evidence Act (Scotland) 1988 in Scotland."

The British Standards Institute has recently introduced BS 10008:2008 Evidential weight and legal admissibility of electronic information. This standard covers the scope of all three parts of the more widely.

By complying with BS 10008 the BSI website says:

... it is anticipated that the evidential weight of electronic information transferred to and/or managed by a corporate body will be maximised"

The BIP 0008 Code of Practice provides a set of "good practice" principles that, if followed, will greatly increase the chances of electronic documents and scanned images being accepted as evidence by the courts.

So the general opinion is that scanned images are likely to be admissible in court, but would be considered as secondary evidence with the same evidential weight as a photocopy.

At Scanning Direct we use the principles of good practice defined in the code to ensure that our scanning service offers the highest standards. But if you have any particular legal queries that are not answered by the code we would advise that you contact your legal advisor.

Visit the British Standards Website : www.bsi-global.com

Visit the Companies House Website : www.companieshouse.gov.uk