CIVIL EVIDENCE ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1971 - SECT 2 Admissibility of statements produced by computers.

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CIVIL EVIDENCE ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1971 - SECT 2

Admissibility of statements produced by computers.

2.(1) In any civil proceedings a statement contained in a document produced by
a computer shall, subject to rules of court, be admissible as evidence of any
fact stated therein of which direct oral evidence would be admissible, if it
is shown that the conditions mentioned in subsection (2) are satisfied in
relation to the statement and computer in question.

(2) The said conditions are

(a)that the document containing the statement was produced by the computer
during a period over which the computer was used regularly to store or process
information for the purposes of any activities regularly carried on over that
period, whether for profit or not, by any body, whether corporate or not, or
by any individual;

(b)that over that period there was regularly supplied to the computer in the
ordinary course of those activities information of the kind contained in the
statement or of the kind from which the information so contained is derived;

(c)that throughout the material part of that period the computer was operating
properly or, if not, that any respect in which it was not operating properly
or was out of operation during that part of that period was not such as to
affect the production of the document or the accuracy of its contents; and

(d)that the information contained in the statement reproduces or is derived
from information supplied to the computer in the ordinary course of those
activities.

(3) Where over a period the function of storing or processing information for
the purposes of any activities regularly carried on over that period as
mentioned in subsection (2)(a) was regularly performed by computers, whether

(a)by a combination of computers operating over that period; or

(b)by different computers operating in succession over that period; or

(c)by different combinations of computers operating in succession over that
period; or

(d)in any other manner involving the successive operation over that period, in
whatever order, of one or more computers and one or more combinations of
computers,

(4) In any civil proceedings where it is desired to give a statement in
evidence by virtue of this section, a certificate doing any of the following
things, that is to say

(a)identifying the document containing the statement and describing the manner
in which it was produced;

(b)giving such particulars of any device involved in the production of that
document as may be appropriate for the purpose of showing that the document
was produced by a computer;

(c)dealing with any of the matters to which the conditions mentioned in
subsection (2) relate,

(5) Notwithstanding subsection (4), in any civil proceedings the court may for
special cause require oral evidence to be given of any matter of which
evidence could ordinarily be given by means of a certificate under that
subsection.

(6) For the purposes of this Part

(a)information shall be taken to be supplied to a computer if it is supplied
thereto in any appropriate form and whether it is so supplied directly or
(with or without human intervention) by means of any appropriate equipment;

(b)where, in the course of activities carried on by any individual or body,
information is supplied with a view to its being stored or processed for the
purposes of those activities by a computer operated otherwise than in the
course of those activities, that information, if duly supplied to that
computer, shall be taken to be supplied to it in the course of those
activities;

(c)a document shall be taken to have been produced by a computer whether it
was produced by it directly or (with or without human intervention) by means
of any appropriate equipment.

(7) Subject to subsection (3), in this Part "computer" means any device for
storing and processing information, and any reference to information being
derived from other information is a reference to its being derived therefrom
by calculation, comparison or any other process.

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Northern Irish Legislation

CIVIL EVIDENCE ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1971 - SECT 2