|
What is Authentication?
Just
because a witness or party has written evidence to support his
claim does not automatically mean that a judge will allow that
evidence to be presented to the jury. One test evidence must
meet in order to be deemed admissible by the court is that the
evidence must be authentic.
Authentication refers to a rule of evidence which requires
that evidence must be sufficient to support a finding that
the matter in question is what its proponent claims. The "authenticity"
rule relates to whether the subject of an evidentiary offering
(generally a tangible thing), is what it purports to be. This
is a legal way of saying that evidence must be proven to be
genuine to be admissible.
The issue of authenticity must be determined at two stages
of a proceeding. First, the court must determine if the proffered
item appears sufficiently genuine so that its admission could
assist the fact-finder (usually the jury). Second, the fact-finder
must ultimately decide whether he believes that the evidence
is actually genuine.
For instance, evidence may be authenticated by the testimony
of a witness that a matter is what it is claimed to be; as
in the case of a witness testifying that a picture accurately
represents the object in the photograph. Authentication of
evidence may also be accomplished when it involves a writing
authorized by law to be recorded or filed which has been recorded
or filed in a public office, or a purported public record,
report or statement. Telephone conversations may be authenticated
by evidence that a call was made to the number assigned at
the time by the telephone company to a particular person or
business.
However, the fact that evidence is found by the court to
satisfy the authenticity requirement does not mean that it
is necessarily admissible. Authenticated evidence may be excluded
by other rules such as those that relate to hearsay. For instance,
a police report by an investigating officer can be authenticated
by having the policeman testify at trial that the report is
genuine and was created by him. However, that report is hearsay,
since it is a writing, and would not be admissible under the
hearsay rule even though it initially became authenticated
by the officer's testimony.
Authentication of evidence is an important factor for your
attorney to consider when the case proceeds to trial. Some
states have laws that provide a procedure to have evidence
deemed authentic. For instance, some states provide that a
person's medical records are automatically deemed authentic
if the healthcare provider who provides the records certifies
in writing that the copies of the records are a true and accurate
copy.
The rule of authentication must be applied in conjunction
with the other rules of evidence to ensure that the judge
will allow the evidence to be presented to the jury. There
is nothing more devastating to a case than a court's exclusion
of valuable written evidence on the grounds that the attorney
has failed to properly authenticate the evidence.
|
