Copies of original evidence, such as disks and other media, are considered what in court unless they are collected during the normal course of business operations?

Question

Options

• AHearsay evidence
• BCircumstantial evidence
• CReal evidence
• DNone of the above

• A
  81% (26)
• B
  6% (2)
• C
  3% (1)
• D
  9% (3)

Explanation

Copies of original evidence (like disk images or media duplicates) are classified as hearsay evidence in court because they are secondhand representations of the original, not the original itself - and unless they were created during the normal course of business (which establishes authenticity and routine process), courts treat them with the same skepticism applied to out-of-court statements. Circumstantial evidence (B) is incorrect because that refers to indirect evidence that implies a fact without directly proving it (e.g., a suspect's presence near a crime scene), which is a different evidentiary concept entirely. Real evidence (C) is incorrect because real evidence refers to physical, tangible original items presented directly to the court - a copy, by definition, is not the original. The "normal course of business" exception is key: business records created routinely (e.g., server logs auto-generated daily) can escape the hearsay classification because their regularity implies reliability.

Memory tip: Think "copy = hearsay, original = real." Just as a photocopied contract isn't the contract itself, a disk image isn't the disk - it's a report about the disk, which is the essence of hearsay.

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