The FRE, the California Evidence Code of 1967, and the IBA Rules of Taking Evidence in International Commercial Arbitration are all documents governing the acceptance of evidence in courts.
Rule 34 of the FRCP allows for data to be translated into a reasonable form, if necessary.
The best evidence rule states that “to prove the content of a writing, recording, or photograph, the ‘original’ writing, recording, or photograph is ordinarily required.”
The FRE states that “if data are stored in a computer or similar device, any printout or other output readable by sight, shown to reflect the data accurately, is an ‘original.’”
The FRE even goes so far as to permit summaries of large volumes of evidence in the form of “a chart, summary, or calculation” ...
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