The Legal Implications of A Paperless Office

As more and more businesses strive to reduce the quantity of paper they use on a day to day basis the paperless office is becoming a common goal for many firms. Upon this paperless policy many organisations stumble across the same question: are digital copies of scanned documents admissible in court?

The question covers an array of documents, from contracts and invoices to receipts and claim forms. Organisations are understandably concerned that legal document scanning could land them in hot water should a legal dispute arise in the future.

Whilst there is actually somewhat of a grey area in British law, companies should rest assured that many electronic images of legal documents can be treated as evidence in the eyes of the law. Legal document scanning should not jeopardise the admissibility of a certain piece of evidence.

The general rule is, as long as the original document is admissible and is accepted as a piece of evidence then a scanned copy or other electronic image of that document can be treated as secondary evidence. This is the same for photocopies of original documents.

The Civil Evidence Act (1995) in England and Wales actually sets out provisions for the authenticity of such documents and, should the scanned document meet these provisions, it is likely that they will be admissible in court.

There is actually a recently introduced British Standard that formally deals with the “evidential weight and legal admissibility of electronic information”. The standard states that for a document to be admissible in court its authenticity must be “beyond question”. The guide to conforming to the standards is £65 to download – a small price to pay for the assurance that a company’s scanned legal documents will be admissible.

The British Standards Institute suggest that by following the ‘best practise’ guide, the probability of an electronic document being accepted as evidence will be dramatically increased.

Often firms opt to outsource the scanning of their legal documents to professional companies with experience in ensuring electronic records are up to scratch in the eyes of the law. Whilst this comes at an expense to the company, many directors, particularly at smaller firms, feel it is a small price to pay for peace of mind and legal protection.

So to conclude – are digital copies of documents and records admissible as evidence in British courts? As long as the original document was admissible and the record can be verified for its authenticity there is a significant possibility that the electronic image will suffice.