Application of the best evidence rule 4. The best evidence rule generally requires that the proponent of a record should produce the original record or the closest thing available to an original. The Act therefore dispenses with the need for an original, by substituting another way of serving the purpose of the rule. The purpose of the best evidence rule is to help ensure the integrity of the record, since alterations are more likely to be detectable on the original. It will often be impossible to provide direct evidence of the integrity of the individual record to be admitted.
System reliability is a substitute for record reliability.
The Act does not say expressly that the proponent of an electronic record does not have to produce an original, but the displacement of the usual best evidence rule will have that effect. Neither the production of an original record nor the production of evidence of system reliability guarantees the integrity of the record, but it supports its integrity to the degree that courts have been willing to admit the record, subject to argument about its weight. Even if there is an original of an electronic record, as in the case of an electronic image of a paper document, the Act does not require the production of the paper. Nor does it require that the original have been destroyed before the electronic image becomes admissible. The Act sets up a rule for admitting electronic records.