The UPC and the admissibility of electronic records

Note that the Uniform Photographic Copies of Business and Public Records as Evidence Act, 28 U.S.C§ 1732, states that:

“If any business, institution, member of a profession or calling, or any department or agency of government, in the regular course of business or activity has kept or recorded any memorandum, writing, entry, print, representation or combination thereof, of any act, transaction, occurrence, or event, and in the regular course of business has caused any or all of the same to be recorded, copied, or reproduced by any photographic, photostatic, microfilm, micro-card, miniature photographic, or other process which accurately reproduces or forms a durable medium for so reproducing the original, the original may be destroyed in the regular course of business unless its preservation is required by law. Such reproduction, when satisfactorily identified, is as admissible in evidence as the original itself in any judicial or administrative proceeding whether the original is in existence or not and an enlargement or facsimile of such reproduction is likewise admissible in evidence if the original reproduction is in existence and available for inspection under direction of court. “

So even if an original has been destroyed, an accurate copy can be submitted in court. The UPA has been adopted by a majority of states. It was originally passed in 1951 in order to address the admissibility of records stored on microfilm.