§ 30.10 Exception—Public Records: FRE 1005

• Jurisdiction: North Carolina

§ 30.10 Exception—Public Records: FRE 1005

Once again, public records get favorable treatment.⁶⁷ Rule 1005 provides for the admissibility of copies of official records and recorded documents, thus recognizing an automatic dispensation from the requirements of the original writing rule. "Public records call for somewhat different treatment. Removing them from their usual place of keeping would be attended by serious inconvenience to the public and to the custodian."⁶⁸ The trade-off is that only a specific class of secondary evidence is admissible—certified copies.⁶⁹ Note that "the mere fact that a document is kept in a working file of a governmental agency does not automatically qualify it as a public record."⁷⁰

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Notes:

^[67] Rule 1005 deals only with the best evidence rule. Hearsay and authentication rules may also need to be satisfied for admissibility. Many public records are self-authenticating, however. Rule 902. In addition, Rules 803(8) to (10) recognize hearsay exceptions for public records.

^[68] Fed. R. Evid. 1005 advisory committee's note (citing McCormick, Evidence § 204; 4 Wigmore, Evidence §§ 1215-28).

^[69] The copy may be certified as correct in accordance with Rule 902(4) or testified to be correct by a witness who has compared it with the original. Moreover, if a copy can be obtained by reasonable diligence, the proponent may use other evidence to prove the content. See also Fed. R. Evid. 1005 advisory committee's note ("This blanket dispensation from producing or accounting for the original would open the door to the introduction of every kind of secondary evidence of contents of public records were it not for the preference given certified or compared copies. Recognition of degrees of secondary evidence in this situation is an appropriate quid pro quo for...