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Timestamp: 2019-04-19 14:21:19+00:00

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These rules govern proceedings in the courts of the State of Nebraska, to the extent and with the exceptions stated in § 27-1101.
§ 27-801. Rule 801. Definitions.
(2) Admission by party-opponent. The statement is offered against a party and is (A) the party's own statement, in either an individual or a representative capacity, of (B) a statement of which he has manifested his adoption or belief in its truth, or (C) a statement by a person authorized by the party to make a statement concerning the subject, or (D) a statement by the party's agent or servant concerning a matter within the scope of his agency or employment, made during the existence of the relationship, or (E) a statement by a co-conspirator of a party during the course and in furtherance of the conspiracy.
(22) A statement not specifically covered by any of the foregoing exceptions, but having equivalent circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness, if the court determines that (a) the statement is offered as evidence of a material fact, (b) the statement is more probative on the point for which it is offered than any other evidence which the proponent can procure through reasonable efforts, and. (c) the general purposes of these rules and the interests of justice will best be served by admission of the statement into evidence. A statement may not be admitted under this exception unless the proponent of it makes known to the adverse party, sufficiently in advance of the trial or hearing to provide the adverse party with a fair opportunity to prepare to meet it, his intention to offer the statement and the particulars of it, including the name and address of the declarant.
(e) A statement not specifically covered by any of the foregoing exceptions but having equivalent circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness. if the court determines that (i) the statement is offered as evidence of a material fact, (ii) the statement is more probative on the point for which it is offered than any other evidence which the proponent can procure through reasonable efforts, and (iii) the general purposes of these rules and the interests of justice will best be served by admission of the statement into evidence. A statement may not be admitted under this exception unless the proponent of it makes known to the adverse party, sufficiently in advance of the trial or hearing to provide the adverse party with a fair opportunity to prepare to meet it, the proponent's intention to offer the statement and the particulars of it, including the name and address of the declarant.
(1) The requirement of authentication or identification as a condition precedent to admissibility is satisfied by evidence sufficient to support a finding that the matter in question is what its proponent claims.
0) Any method of authentication or identification provided by act of the Legislature or by other rules adopted by the Supreme Court which are not in conflict with laws governing such matters.
(10) Any signature, document, or other matter declared by Act of Congress and the laws of the State of Nebraska to be presumptively or prima facie genuine or authentic.
(4) A duplicate is a counterpart produced by the same impression as the original, or from the same matrix, or by means of photography, including enlargements and miniatures, or by mechanical or electronic rerecording, or by chemical reproduction, or by other equivalent techniques which accurately reproduce the original.
To prove the content of a writing, recording, or photograph, the original writing, recording, or photograph is required, except as otherwise provided in these rules or by Act of Congress or of the Legislature of the State of Nebraska or by other rules adopted by the Supreme Court of Nebraska.
(4) The writing, recording. or photograph is not closely related to a controlling issue.
The contents of an official record. or of a document authorized to be recorded or filed and actually recorded or filed, including data compilations in any form. if otherwise admissible. may be proved by copy, certified as correct in accordance with ~ 27-902 or testified to be correct by a witness who has compared it with the original. If a copy which complies with the foregoing cannot be obtained by the exercise of reasonable diligence, then other evidence of the contents may be given.
The contents of voluminous writings, recordings, or photographs which cannot conveniently be examined in court may be presented in the form of a chart, summary, or calculation. The originals, or duplicates, shall be made available for examination or copying, or both, by other parties at a reasonable time and place. The judge may order that they be produced in court.
Contents of writings, recordings, or photographs may be proved by the testimony or deposition of the party against whom offered or by his written admission, without accounting for the nonproduction of the original.
If any business, institution, member of a profession or calling, or department or agency of government 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, optical imagery, 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 and, with respect to agencies or departments of government, if the State Records Administrator approves such destruction. 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 the court. The introduction of a reproduced record, enlargement, or facsimile does not preclude admission of the original.
No title insurance policy shall be written unless and until the title insurer has caused to be conducted a reasonable examination of the title and has caused to be made a determination of insurability of title in accordance with sound underwriting practices for title insurers. Evidence thereof shall be preserved and retained in the files of the title insurer or its title insurance agent for a period of not less than fifteen years after the title insurance policy has been issued. In lieu of retaining the original copy, the title insurer or the title insurance agent may in the regular course of business establish a system whereby all or part of these writings are recorded. copied, or reproduced by any photographic. photostatic. microfilm. microcard. miniature photographic, or other process which accurately reproduces or forms a durable medium for reproducing the original. This section shall not apply to (I) an insurer assuming no primary liability in a contract of reinsurance or (2) an insurer acting as a coinsurer if one of the other coinsuring insurers has complied with this section.
The recording of all instruments by the roll form of microfilm may be substituted for the method of recording instruments in books, and the filing of all documents by the roll form of microfilm may be substituted for the method of filing original documents. If this method of recording instruments on microfilm or filing documents on microfilm is used, the original Instruments so recorded and the original documents so filed need not be retained after the microfilm has been verified for accuracy and quality, and a security copy on silver negative microfilm in roll form must be maintained and filed off premises under safe conditions to insure the protection of the records and shall meet the microfilm standards as prescribed by the State Records Administrator as provided in §§ 84-1201 to 84-1220. The fee books shall provide the proper index information as to the microfilm roll and numerical sequence of all such recorded instruments and of all such filed documents. The internal reference copies or work copies of the instruments recorded on microfilm and of documents filed on microfilm may be in any photographic form to provide the necessary information as may be determined by the official in charge.
In all cases in which any instrument or document is required by law to be copied or recorded in any public record in any public office within the State of Nebraska, the officials having charge of the making of such records may employ the use of photographic processes for the reproduction of such instrument or document. This shall be done for the public records and shall be a true copy of the original instrument or document to be so recorded, and may likewise use any such photographic process for the making of certified copies of such public records: Provided, no such photographic processes shall be used for the making of permanent records until it shall have been demonstrated to the satisfaction of the officials having charge of such records and the State Records Administrator, that the processes to be used will produce an accurate and permanent record of the instrument or document to be recorded. Any such existing records when reproduced by such photographic processes may be destroyed by the official having charge of the same when approval is given by the State Records Administrator.
The clerk of the district court shall keep records to be called the appearance docket, the trial docket, the journal, the complete record, the execution docket, the fee book, the general index, and the judgment record. Such records may be compiled, filed, and maintained on a computer system. Effective not later than October 1, 1992. provision for dockets and records of the district courts shall be established by rule of the Supreme Court. The journal and complete record may be compiled and filed on microfilm. The recording of all instruments by the roll form of microfilm may be substituted for the method of recording instruments in books. If this method of recording instruments on microfilm is used, a security copy on silver negative microfilm in roll form must be maintained and filed off premises under safe conditions to insure the protection of the records. The internal reference copies or work copies of the instruments recorded on microfilm ma" be in any photographic form to provide the necessary information as may be determined by the official in charge. and shall meet the microfilm standards as prescribed by the State Records Administrator.
(1) That programs for the systematic and centrally correlated management of state and local records will promote efficiency and economy in the day-to-day record-keeping activities of state and local governments, and will facilitate and expedite governmental operations.
(2) That records containing information essential to the operations of government, and to the protection of the rights and interests of persons, must be safeguarded against the destructive effects of all forms of disaster and must be available as needed; wherefore it is necessary to adopt special provisions for the selection and preservation of essential state and local records, thereby insuring the protection and availability of such information.
(11) Disaster shall mean any occurrence of fire, flood, storm, earthquake, explosion, epidemic. riot, sabotage, or other conditions of extreme peril resulting in substantial injury or damage to persons or property within this state, whether such occurrence is caused by an act of nature or of man, including an enemy of the United States.
A State Records Board, hereinafter called the board, is hereby established to advise and assist the administrator in the performance of the duties enjoined upon him or her by the Records Management Act and to perform such other functions and duties as the act requires. In addition to the administrator, the board shall consist of the Governor, the Attorney General, the Auditor of Public Accounts, the Chief Justice, the Clerk of the Legislature, the Director of Administrative Services, the Director of the Nebraska State Historical Society, the State Archivist, and the director of the records management program, who shall be appointed by the administrator with the approval of the board, or their personally designated representatives. The administrator or his or her representative shall be chairperson of the board, and the director of the records management program shall be its secretary. Upon call by the administrator, the board shall convene periodically in accordance with its rules and regulations or upon call by the administrator or his or her personally designated representative.
(d) Obtain from the agencies concerned such reports and other data as are required for the proper administration of the records management program including organizational charts of agencies concerned.
(2) The administrator shall establish standards for designating essential records, shall assist agencies in identifying essential records, and shall guide them in the establishment of programs for the preservation of essential records.
(3) The administrator may advise and assist members of the Legislature and other officials in the maintenance and disposition of their personal or political papers of public interest and may provide such other services as are available to state and local agencies, within the limitation of available funds.
(5) Comply with the rules, regulations, standards and procedures issued and set up by the administrator and the board, and cooperate in the conduct of surveys made by the administrator pursuant to §§ 84-1201 to 84-1226.
In addition to the duties enumerated in ~ 84-1207, each state agency head shall designate a records officer from the management or professional level who shall be responsible for the overall coordination of records management activities within the agency.
(1) The administrator may make or cause to be made preservation duplicates of essential records or may designate as preservation duplicates existing copies thereof. A preservation duplicate shall be durable, accurate, complete. and clear and, if made by means of photography, microphotography, photocopying, film, microfilm, optical imagery, or similar processes, shall be prepared in conformity to standards prescribed and approved by the board.
(2) A preservation duplicate made by a photographic, photostatic, microfilm, microcard, miniature photographic, optical imagery, or similar process which accurately reproduces or forms a durable medium for so reproducing the original shall have the same force and effect for all purposes as the original record, whether the original is in existence or not. A transcript, exemplification, or certified copy of such preservation duplicate shall for all purposes be deemed a transcript, exemplification, or certified copy of the original record.
(3) No copy of an essential record shall be used as a preservation duplicate unless, under the general laws of the state, the copy has the same force and effect for all purposes as the original record.
The administrator may establish storage facilities for essential records, preservation duplicates and other state records and may provide for a system of charges to allocate the cost of providing such storage among the agencies and departments utilizing the storage services. The system of charges shall, as nearly as may be practical, cover the actual costs of operating the storage facilities.
(1) The administrator shall properly maintain essential records and preservation duplicates stored by him.
(2) An essential record or preservation duplicate stored by the administrator may be removed by the regularly designated custodian for temporary use when necessary for the proper conduct of his office, and shall be returned to the administrator immediately after such use.
(3) When an essential record is stored by him, the administrator, upon the request of the regularly designated custodian thereof, shall provide for its inspection or for the making or certification of copies thereof, and such copies, when certified by the administrator, shall have the same force and effect for all purposes as if certified by the regularly designated custodian.
(1) When an essential record is required by law to be treated in a confidential manner, the administrator, in effectuating the purposes of §§ 841201 to 84-1226, shall protect its confidential nature, as well as that of any preservation duplicate or other copy thereof. Any hospital or medical record submitted to the administrator for microfilming or similar processing shall be made accessible in a manner consistent with the access permitted similar records under § 83-109 and § 83-1068.
(2) Nothing in the Records Management Act shall be construed to affect the laws and regulations dealing with the dissemination, security, and privacy of criminal history information under Chapter 29, article 35.
The administrator shall review periodically, and at least once each year, the program for the selection and preservation of essential records, including the classification thereof and the provisions for preservation duplicates and for the safeguarding of essential records and preservation duplicates to insure that the purposes of §§ 84-1201 to 84-1226 are accomplished.
All records made or received by or under the authority of, or coming into the custody, control, or possession of agencies in any of the three branches of the state government, or of any local political subdivision, in the course of their public duties. are the property of the government concerned, and shall not be mutilated, destroyed, transferred, removed, damaged, or otherwise disposed of, in whole or in part, except as provided by law. Any person who shall willfully mutilate, destroy, transfer, remove, damage, or otherwise dispose of such records or any part of such records. except as provided by law, and any person who shall retain and continue to hold the possession of any such records, or parts thereof, belonging to the state government or to any local political subdivision, and shall refuse to deliver up such records, or parts thereof. to the proper official under whose authority such records belong, upon demand being made by such officer or, in cases of a defunct office, to the succeeding agency or to the state archives of the Nebraska State Historical Society, shall be guilty of a Class III misdemeanor.
The State Records Administrator, or any official under whose authority such records belong, shall report to the proper county attorney any supposed violation of § 84-12 13 that in its judgment warrants prosecution. It shall be the duty of the several county attorneys to investigate supposed violations of such section and to prosecute violations of such section.
Whenever any agency desires to dispose of records which are not listed on an approved records retention and disposition schedule applicable to that agency. the agency head shall prepare and submit to the administrator, on forms provided by the administrator, a list of the records sought to be disposed of, and a request for approval of their disposition. which list and request shall be referred to the board for action at its next regular or special session. On consideration thereof, the board may approve such disposition thereof as may be legal and proper, or may refuse to approve any disposition, and the records as to which such determination has been made may thereupon be disposed of in accordance with the approval of the board.
(1) If not otherwise prohibited by law, nonrecord materials, not included within the definition of records as contained in § 84-1202, may be destroyed at any time by the agency in possession thereof, without the prior approval of the administrator or board. The administrator may formulate procedures and interpretations to guide in the disposal of nonrecord materials, but nothing therein shall be contrary to any provision of law relating to the transfer of materials of historical value to the state archives of the Nebraska State Historical Society.
(2) Members of the Legislature and other officials are encouraged to offer their personal and political papers of public interest to the state archives for preservation subject to any reasonable restrictions concerning their use by other persons.
* The administrator shall promulgate such rules and regulations as may be necessary or proper to effectuate the purposes of §§ 84-1201 to 84-1226. Those portions thereof which relate to functions specifically delegated to the board shall be approved and concurred in by the board.
All provisions of the Records Management Act shall apply to all agencies as defined in subdivision (1) of §84-1202 and the administrator shall advise and assist in the establishment of programs for records management and for the selection and preservation of essential records of such branches, and, as required by such branches, shall provide program services pursuant to the provisions of §§ 84-1201 to 84-1226.
The governing bodies of all local political subdivisions in this state, with the advice and assistance of the administrator and pursuant to the rules and regulations established by him, shall establish and maintain continuing programs to promote the principles of efficient records management for local records, and for the selection and preservation of essential local records, which programs, insofar as practicable, shall follow the patterns of the programs established for state records as provided in §§ 84-1201 to 84-1226. Each such governing body shall promulgate such rules and regulations as are necessary or proper to effectuate and implement the programs so established, but nothing therein shall be in violation of the provisions of general law relating to the destruction of local records.
The administrator shall prepare a biennial report on the status of programs established by him as provided in §§ 84-1201 to 84-1226, and on the progress made during the preceding biennium in implementing and effectuating such programs. Copies of this report shall be furnished the Governor, the Speaker of the Legislature, and such other officials and agencies as the Governor or the board shall direct.
§ § 84-1201 to 84-126 shall be known and may be cited as the Records Management Act.
After May 18. 1977. no state agency shall purchase any microfilm system or equipment prior to the approval of the State Records Administrator. The administrator shall not approve internal microfilm activities of any state agency unless such activities may not be feasibly provided by the central microfilming agency and are necessary to a particular operation within the state agency. Any equipment purchased under this section shall become the property of the State Records Administrator and shall be subject to the provisions of § 84-1223.
On May 19. 1979. all micrographic production. processing, and viewing equipment currently owned or subsequently acquired under the provisions of § 84- 1222 by any state executive, judicial, or legislative agency, except the University of Nebraska or the state colleges, shall become the property of the State Records Administrator, regardless of the fund source from which the equipment was originally purchased. Appropriate credit. against future charges. shall be given to all agencies for the fair market value of all equipment accepted which had been purchased with federal funds or trust funds. Equipment purchased with funds from the Highway Cash Fund shall not be deemed to have been purchased with federal funds or trust funds.
(4) After July 1, 1978, be empowered to determine the operating locations of all micrographic equipment in his possession.
The State Records Administrator shall provide for a system of .charges for micropublishing services and computer output microfilm services rendered by the central microfilming agency to any other department or agency of the state when these charges are allocable to a particular project carried on by such microfilming agency. Such charges shall, as nearly as may be practical, reflect the actual cost of services provided by the central microfilming agency. On July 1, 1978, and thereafter the State Records Administrator shall extend this system of charges to include source document microfilming. The State Records Administrator shall extend this system of charges and user fees for all micrographic equipment which is the property of the administrator and which is used by any other state agency or department.
(1) There is hereby created a fund to be known as the Records Management Micrographics Services Revolving Fund. All charges received by the Secretary of State under §§ 84-1209 and 84-1225 and legislative appropriations shall be credited to such fund. Whenever any micrographics equipment of any state agency, except the University of Nebraska or the state colleges, shall become surplus property and shall be sold pursuant to § 81-161.04. the proceeds from the sale of such equipment shall be deposited in the state treasury and shall be credited by the State Treasurer to the Records Management Micrographics Services Revolving Fund. Expenditures shall be made from such fund to finance the micropublishing services and the computer output microfilm services by the Secretary of State or his or her authorized agent in accordance with appropriations made by the Legislature, to receive and expend funds pursuant to § 84-1209 for the providing of records storage services for state agencies. (2) By agreement between any state agency and the State Records Administrator, any state agency may be billed one full year's rental for equipment at the beginning of each fiscal year. The State Records Administrator may coordinate with the Director of Administrative Services to set up a separate subaccount within the fund for the purpose of accounting for micrographic equipment procurement and replacement.

References: § 27

§ 27
 § 83
 § 83
 § 84
 § 84
 §84
 § 84
 § 84
 § 84
 § 81
 § 84