§ 57-1-7b — Use of photographic copies in evidence -- Business and public records; destruction of originals

If any business, institution, member of a profession or calling, or any officer of a local governmental agency, including county officers, county boards of education and municipalities, 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, microcard, 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 held in a custodial or fiduciary capacity or unless its preservation is required by law: Provided, however, That destruction of records of local governmental agencies shall also be contingent upon the approval by those agencies of such disposition. 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. The introduction of a reproduced record, enlargement of facsimile, does not preclude admission of the original.

Legislative History

1957 Reg. Sess., SB174