13 – Documentary Evidence

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the broad category of documentary evidence. This type of evidence encompasses evidence beyond what the term “documentary evidence” would normally bring to mind. Documentary evidence includes evidence furnished by written instruments, inscriptions, and documents of all kinds. The term is broad enough to encompass every form of writing and applies to both public and private documents. Under the Federal Rules of Evidence, a writing or recording is defined including “letters, words, or numbers, or their equivalent, set down by handwriting, typewriting, printing, photostatting, photographing, magnetic impulse, mechanical or electronic recording, or other form of data compilation.” Originally, a document provided a way of storing information in a fairly permanent manner, but that concept has grown to include movies, phonograph records, video- and audiotapes, computers and their mass storage devices, and photographs. Because the general rules of admissibility apply to all types of evidence, documentary evidence must meet these usual requirements. In addition, there are certain rules that apply uniquely to documentary evidence.