Are Emails admissable in Court ?

Conology

Hi
Does anyone know if emails are admissible as evidence in a court case.

Thank you

Tom Young

Conology wrote: »

Hi
Does anyone know if emails are admissible as evidence in a court case.

Thank you

Yes.

Pro Hoc Vice

^ ^ What he said.

Conology

Thank you

goose2005

Yes, but would you need some sort of proof from the ISP that the emails were sent and that the text/date hasn't been altered or forged?

Pro Hoc Vice

goose2005 wrote: »

Yes, but would you need some sort of proof from the ISP that the emails were sent and that the text/date hasn't been altered or forged?

I have never seen such proof offered or required in court. I could see that the other side could seek this information in discovery if the believed there was an issue.

But email can be proved in the usual way, by the person themselves giving evidence that they received them, or by evidence of a computer expert that he retrieved the e-mail or by exhibiting the email on affidavit.

amdublin

Part of Joe O'Reilly's conviction was on basis of emails between him and his sister IMO

http://irishabroad.com/news/irish-voice/news/HusbandConvictedofWifesMurder250707.aspx

traineeacc

Yes,been involved a couple of cases where they were. I'm on the commercial side and been used a number of times

Tom Young

OP: I never pointed you to the law in my reply.

Here is the law: http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2000/en/act/pub/0027/index.html

Sections 11 - 22 are noteworthy. The specific answer to your query is dealt with by Section 22.

Receipt and delivery are dealt with slightly differently to the postal rule. See Entores v Miles.

tricky D

From my slightly rusty experience in this area...

For the purposes of this matter there are 2 types of email: 'ordinary' and digitally signed which are usually also encrypted.

The first type, ordinary, and referred to in Electronic Commerce Act, 2000 22(a), can be be challenged on the grounds of authenticity, integrity and repudiation. Some email clients have the ability for forgery for both legitimate and non-legitimate purposes. A regular email could be challenged in court but a quick ISP check would usually sort that out, so some sort of attestation that the email is true, suffices. Never heard of any challenge of such evidence in this matter.

The second type covered by the Electronic Commerce Act, 2000 22(b), refers to contract grade emails where Public Key Infrastructure is sued to ensure the properties of the email (or other PKI-ed transaction) have: confidentiality (privacy), authenticity, integrity and non-repudiation (CAIN/PAIN model). These are provided by encryption and digital signing. These are rock solid unless there are problems where the CSP's (Certificate or Revocation Authority) infrastructure or integrity does not fulfill the requirements set out in the Act.

Conology

Thank you all very much for the very helpful information.